Return to Skid Row
by S. Snowflake
Summary: Based on the movie's theatrical version. Five years after leaving Skid Row, Seymour and Audrey lead a seemingly perfect suburban life, but Seymour is haunted by terrible dreams that bring him back to his not-so-distant past. Audrey believes he must go back to Skid Row once more to leave it all behind. But what new dangers await the Krelborns in the city? Rated for dark themes, etc.
1. A Bloody Dream

_Author's Note: This story was the longest writing project I've done so far. It was some of my most grueling and emotional work, and I will always be proud of it, even though I know it will probably never be published. I would like to thank several people: DrumMajorPheonix for her support, filmgrl13 for her own great Little Shop of Horrors stories and interest in this story, Taylor Moore for being my humble beta reader and a talkative friend, my little sister for being my second "beta" and always making jokes about my stuff (while she reads it!), and my English teacher Mr. Repp for reading the first chapter and supporting me through my frequent laptop issues. Lastly, from the more spiritual side, I hope you've read this up in the heaven internet, Grammy._

_Okay, now onto the preface of this. I got into this musical awhile ago, and soon after seeing it onstage for a second time, I rented the film version out of curiosity. I was satisfied with nearly every aspect of this version except for one thing: the different ending. Sure, it was nice to think of a way for the lovers Seymour and Audrey to escape Skid Row and live happily ever after, but it seemed so abrupt and hollow. Even with such a peaceful life, how could Seymour and Audrey live normally after their experiences on Skid Row? Would the nightmares of blood, alien plants, and crime haunt Seymour? Would Audrey truly let go of her own pain? Slowly, out of these thoughts, this story began to unfold._

_And now, without further ado, enjoy!_

_*S. Snowflake_

* * *

_**Return to Skid Row**_

**Chapter One: A Bloody Dream**

*** * *  
**

The sun cast rich orange light over the ground, brightening it in hues of scarlet and marigold as it started to set, while the clouds turned shades of rosy red and violet grey over the suburbs. The trees' leaves had turned a yellowish brown after the spring rains and the bright summer sunshine no longer sustained them, but the little square front lawns were mostly still a deep and healthy green color. A chilly November breeze stirred up the stray leaves onto lawns and driveways that had been raked and swept earlier that day. Despite the troublesome leaves and the wind chill, most of life here was quite peaceful. Every morning at eight-o-clock, the adults who worked in town would drive to their jobs and work all day long. Meanwhile, the home keepers would stay and spruce up their houses and the neighborhood kids would catch the bus to school. It had been a fairly lazy autumn day in these suburban homes, but now at five-thirty the folks that worked in town were coming home to warm greetings from their families.

One small house in the middle of Sunshine Street had very little originality to offer except for a well-kept front garden and a somewhat distinguishing mailbox with pink tulips painted all over it that read, "The Krelborns". And it is in this plain, little house that the story begins.

In the front yard by the picket fence stood a young girl. She was almost staring at a pile of raked fall leaves in front of her with a mixed breed spaniel of a dog at her side. She was a girl not over four with brownish hair, wearing a black poodle skirt with yellow trim. Without any warning, her green eyes sparkled and she flung herself into the pile of leaves with a childish cry as the litter of brown, ochre, and crimson flew all around her.

"Come on, Rover!" the girl said blissfully to the spaniel. "Jump in!"

Rover was hesitant, but he loved playing with the little girl, so after some animal thought, he followed her lead. Apparently he enjoyed the leaf jumping too as the girl tossed some leaves into the air and he tried to catch one in his teeth with a few good natured barks.

"Julie? Julie sweetie, come in," a voice called from inside the house before Audrey Krelborn, the little girl's mother, opened the front door. She daintily stepped out on the front stoop with her blond hair curled perfectly just past the edge of her chin, wearing a red polka-dotted dress that nobody in their right mind would want to wear, but she had such a fair frame that nothing could make her seem ugly.

"There you are. You don't wanna' miss the show do you?" she asked in her helium-pitched and slightly irritating New York accent.

The girl Julie turned and pouted. "Daddy's not here."

"Daddy will be home soon, Julie. Now come inside; it's dinna' time and there's a new episode on tonight," Audrey finished, leaving the girl no choice in the matter.

"Okay. Come on Rover," Julie said glumly and trudged inside, dragging her feet all the way.

Yes, the Krelborn house was plain on the outside, but it was even more so on the inside. This was because Audrey liked to keep her house tidy and simple. The walls were off-white colored and the carpets were dull green. Cheap floral painting prints covered the walls, along with some photographs of happy memories. All the chairs either had a plain dotted, or floral print decoration, and the tables and drawers were made of oak. The living room couch sat about six feet away from Audrey's most prized possession: a tiny, out of date, black and white television set.

Julie sat down on the plastic-wrapped sofa (plastic coated because it was the only way her mother could keep it clean), followed by the dog, and soon Audrey came with a TV dinner for her.

Audrey noticed her daughter's scowl and sat down next to her. "He'll be here soon, really sweetie," she said. "Try to be happia'."

Julie turned her head and gave her mother a half smile. "Okay, Mama."

"Glad ya didn't touch that dial folks, because we're back!" the television blared after its usual commercial break. "And don't forget that tonight at eight is our 'Double Creature Feature' full of monsters sure to make you scream!" Then B-movie alien came onscreen; its aluminum foil antennae whirling round and round.

_How could anyone be scared of that? Why, I nearly was killed by_… Audrey thought and shivered briefly as she put the idea away. She ceased her skepticism when _I Love Lucy_ came back on. _Perfect distraction! Thank God for Lucy._

Julie watched the show and ate the chicken dinner to appease her mother, but really was disinterested in watching unless her father was with them. She sulked after swallowing another piece of the white meat. "Daddy's gonna miss it isn't he?" she asked.

"Julie for heaven's sake, no. You know your dad wouldn't miss dinna'," Audrey answered somewhat more sternly than she had before.

Julie stayed silent after that remark. She knew that "for heaven's sake" meant "please don't bring this up again" whenever her mother said it, but something in the back of her mind told her that her father might very well miss dinner that evening. And that voice was quite right.

***

Later that night, a blue Volkswagen bug puttered into the Krelborn driveway; its engine rumbling before the headlights faded with a tiny sputter. The driver door handle clicked before Seymour Krelborn, the man of the house, stepped out.

Seymour was a rather awkward fellow. He was short with a fairly skinny body type wearing a brown, baggy sweater and large glasses bent to the right. He either did not know or did not care about his appearance as he walked sluggishly to the door with his brown hair in need of a good brush and his hands shoved in his pockets and he stared down humbly at the walkway. When he did look up, he noticed the leaves that Julie had scattered on the lawn and exhaled deeply.

"Sunday;" he said under his breath. "-I'll get to that on Sunday." Then he turned the doorknob, knowing that his wife had left the door unlocked for him, and stepped inside.

He had not been in the house for two seconds before Julie turned her head to the door and declared, "Daddy's home!"

Seymour immediately put on his best smile for his daughter and said, "Hello Julie girl."

"Hey, honey," Audrey greeted her husband as he walked over and sat down next to her on the couch before she gave him a peck on the cheek.

"Hey Audrey. You two are watching Mickey Mouse Club?"

"Yep," Audrey answered.

"Why'd you miss Lucy, Daddy?" Julie asked, standing up to change the TV channel dial.

"I've, um… been pretty busy; work and all that," her father replied with a slightly unnerving laugh.

"I'm sure you have your reasons," said Audrey while patting his back affectionately.

Seymour nodded in response, not giving away anything that was really troubling him.

Old horror film music and the sound of staged thunder broke out from the TV before a man said softly and eerily, "Welcome to Friday Night's Double Creature Feature. I'll be your host tonight as we take a trip down Terrifying Lane. Our first feature is, The Killer Robots From Beyond the Moon."

Despite the odd title and bad special effects, the film was surprisingly scary, and (like all good scary movies are), too interesting for any of the Krelborns to turn off. Audrey gasped whenever one of the robots attacked somebody. Julie hid her face behind a blanket at the particularly scary moments and clutched whimpering Rover tightly in her arms. Seymour was the only one who didn't react to the cheap black and white horror flick, but kept his gaze focused in an almost hypnotized manner on the frightening images the entire time.

As the last terrifying minutes unfolded, the television set had the family's attention like a magnet to their eyeballs. The last man left on earth from the film ran into the back alley behind a building, followed slowly by an alien robot with flashing headlights for eyes and a silver spray-painted cardboard body. He was trapped now as the robot came closer to cornering its prey…

Julie gulped, pulling the blanket completely over her head as she shuddered underneath.

The camera closed in on the man's face as he screamed, "No! No! Nooo!" Then the screen faded out; the words, "The End?!?" almost glowing in bold white against a black background on screen.

"This has been The Killer Robots from Beyond the Moon," the TV host concluded. "Stay tuned for our next tale of horror, The Zombie Carnival after these messages…"

Audrey stood up abruptly and turned the television off. "I think that's enough for now," she said in an even higher pitched voice than usual. "Besides, it's past your bedtime, Julie."

"O-okay," Julie said, slowly taking the blanket off her head with a petrified look on her face. "But you'll go with me?"

Audrey smiled warmly and scooped her daughter into her arms. "Sure. Honey, are you coming?" she asked Seymour in more than a command than anything else.

"Huh? O-oh, yeah," Seymour replied, still dazed from the television before he followed to their daughter's bedroom. His expression changed to a satisfied smile as he watched his wife put Julie down on her bed where she nestled under the covers almost instantly.

"How about a story to make you feel betta'?" Audrey asked, fingering through Julie's storybook collection in her closet. "Let's see… Cinderella? The Cat in the Hat?"

Julie shook her head at both options. "Tell me how you and Daddy met," she said. "I like that one!"

Audrey giggled at Julie's enthusiasm and curiosity as she came back to her bedside. "That one again? Okay, okay, your dad used to work in a flowa' shop in New York City, across the street from where I lived. One day I went in there asking for a job and he dropped some plants on the floor in front a' me. It was pretty funny, huh honey?"

"Maybe for you. I was pretty embarrassed since that was the first impression I made on you," Seymour answered sheepishly.

"And it was a good one." Audrey smiled and continued her story, "Anyway, his boss, Mista' Mushnik, hired me that day and we became real good friends working there togetha'. I always thought your dad worked so hard and was so sweet, and the more I thought about your dad, the more I realized that I loved him." She paused, grinning at Seymour behind her.

"Don't look at me," said Seymour. "I fell in love when I first saw you."

Audrey giggled. "Later on we finally admitted that we were in love with eachotha', sp we kissed and-"

"Eew, don't make it gross Mama!" Julie interrupted.

Seymour chuckled from behind.

"One day you might not think kissing is so bad," Audrey said, glancing back at Seymour. "-But anyway, we decided to get married and left the city. About a year lata', we had you, and that's about it. Happy endings."

Julie lifted her head up from under the blanket and asked, "Why'd you leave the city?"

Seymour's eyes widened; this was not the first time Julie had asked that question.

Audrey's voice cracked as she tried to come up with an excuse not to go off on the subject. "Because this is a better place for us," she said, and her tone became softer then. "The part of the city we came from is very dangerous, but ya know, I kind of miss it these days."

"Could we go there sometime?" Julie asked sincerely.

Audrey grinned, then leaned over and kissed Julie lightly on her forehead. "Maybe someday. Now, are you okay now? You're not scared or anything?"

Julie shook her head. Her father was just about to turn off the light when she cried out, "No Daddy, don't do that!"

"Why not?" Seymour asked. "You'll sleep better with the light off."

Julie paused, thinking, then said, "Bunny's scared of the monster in the closet."

Julie pulled out a thoroughly loved whitish-gray stuffed rabbit with brown spots on its face, red buttons for eyes, and a little green bow tie on his chest from under her bed.

"Well, alright. If the monsters will keep you two up," Seymour answered, playing along with Julie's excuse.

Audrey came to his side in the doorway and peered in for the last time that night. "Goodnight Julie," she said lovingly.

"'Night Mama, 'night Daddy," Julie answered tiredly.

Rover tiptoed inside, spun around a few times on the floor, and curled up on the carpet by Julie's bed where he would play the watchdog before Audrey closed the door with just the slightest creak.

The couple walked together down the hall silently until they reached their room so that Julie could not overhear their conversation. "Nice work with Julie back there," Seymour complemented his wife once he knew they were out of Julie's earshot.

"You too, sweetheart. Keeping those monsta's away is a lot of work." She laughed softly in her throat, then sighed. "She's so curious."

"Yeah, she is," Seymour agreed.

"Who knows which one of us she gets that from?" Audrey commented. "It's funny that she talks about seeing Skid Row, huh Seymour?"

"I guess so," he replied, yawning.

Audrey paused, watching Seymour but letting her mind go elsewhere. "Have you eva' thought about goin' back?" she asked almost inaudibly.

He looked up at her suspiciously and with a stern expression before answering, "No, I haven't, why are you askin'?"

"Uh… no reason!" she replied quickly. "-Just forget it."

Seymour wanted to pursue the topic further, but he knew that prying open a subject with his wife was like trying to talk to a brick wall... an irritable brick wall. He shrugged and practically fell down on the bed exhaustedly. "I'm turning in early," he muttered.

"Are you sure?" Audrey asked. "We could watch some more TV if you want; just the two of us... _alone_."

"Nah, I'm beat," he replied not noticing Audrey's attitude change with another yawn. "-You can watch whatever you want though."

Audrey paused, puckering her lips slightly. "Is something' bothering you, honey? You've been acting peculia' since you got home."

"What? Strange? Somethin' bothering me? That's ridiculous! I mean, what's there to be sad about? Everything's just fine."

Audrey caught the falsehood of his words. "I'm worried about you. I know now it's been almost exactly five years since we left the city, and afta' what happened to you last month… are you sure you're all right?"

"Yes Audrey, I'm sure," he said, looking up at her face again.

It was clear to Audrey that if her husband was hiding something from her that he was not going to admit it now, so she nodded and headed back out in the hall. "I'll watch some more TV by myself then. See you in the morning, Seymour darling."

"Yeah, you too Audrey," he answered, switching the bedside lamp off.

Audrey masked her sadness with a smile and left Seymour alone, rather dejected after he ignored her invitation to be with her. _It's so unlike him,_ she thought, walking into the living room and turning on the television set. _Seems like he's changed a lot these days. Or maybe I'm the one who's changed. If it happens again though, I'll be ready._

Through the soft hum of the TV and the house's electrical devices, Seymour tried to clear his mind and get some rest. _ Just don't think about it._ _Think about Audrey, think about Julie. You don't want them to get worried about you. _He made an inner pause. _-Nothing bad to think about at all…_

_***_

_The boom of thunder shook the walls and made Seymour open his eyes with fear. He had always hated thunderstorms, and now he found himself in the middle of one, though how he he had no cluehow he got there. The room was silent, save for the ticking of a clock with chimed twelve times before a lightning flash illuminated the place. Seymour was no longer in his safe, warm bed, but standing in the center of a little shop with a floral refrigerator and a counter in the back. He recognized the room immediately as his former workplace, and looked in horror. _

"_H-how did I get here?" he thought aloud._

"_The same way you always do, boy," answered a deep, demonic voice._

_**Oh God, no!**__ thought Seymour before another lightning flash lit up the room and he saw his worst fear; a horrifically large Venus Flytrap–like plant sitting in the shop corner. _

_The dark green monstrosity was unlike any other botanical entity on Earth. Its mighty leaves and countless tendrils surrounded it like a miniature jungle. Its serrated, sharp teeth glistened in the light from blood, and something like saliva was spattered all over them. Then it opened its trap and shrieked,"Feed meeee!" _

_A thunder crash followed its words that shortly stunned Seymour, but he spoke up in defiance, "No! Never again Audrey Two! I…I'll never feed you again!"_

_The Audrey II cackled maniacally, sending shivers down Seymour's spine. "You thought you got rid of me, boy? Thought you could just blow up Audrey Two, didn't ya? But I never left you, Seymour! Now feed me!"_

"_Forget it!" Seymour retorted, turning away toward the shop door. __**Even a thunderstorm is better than this,**__ he thought. Just as he had pried the door open, a familiar voice echoed from behind._

_The faint, female voice whispered eerily,"Seymour..."_

"_Audrey?" Seymour gasped, knowing that voice from his heart. He knew it would be a bad idea to look back, but instinctually glanced at the plant for only a split second and saw horrific sight. Illuminated by the hellish light of a red neon sign in the shop window, Seymour saw his wife entangled in the tendrils of Audrey II, squealing as the plant pulled her closer to its pod. Seymour heroically flurried back to stop the monster, but one of its many rapidly extending vines tripped him and he hit the floor with a painful thud and could not feel the strength to stand. _

"_That wasn't fair..." he groaned to the plant._

"_He, he, ha-ha-ha! That's __**tough titty**__! Now, where was I?" The plant's pod paned down then at its screaming victim and it seemed to grin. "Ha-ha, bye-bye Auuudrey!" Audrey II chortled as it tossed her limply inside its mouth with a hand-like vine. The fly trap slammed its upper jaw down on her waist as she emitted a pain induced, heart wrenching scream._

"_No!" Seymour cried as he watched his beloved wife being mechanically digested before his eyes. From her torso-up she stuck out of Audrey II's mouth, reaching out for Seymour to take her hand. Again Seymour tried to stand up, but a sharp pain in his side and more vines held him back. _

"_Help me Seymour! Help me!" Audrey cried desperately, slowly descending into the dark depths of the plant's insides. _

_With a final struggle of determination, Seymour broke free of Audrey II's vine grip and rushed to save his wife, but it was too late. He only held her hand one last time before her body was completely sucked into the greenish black abyss. _

"_No! No! Audrey..." he called into the plant. Now, with a sudden rush of anger, he began beating at Audrey II's thick hide furiously screaming, "Open up! Open up, you monster!" _

_The creature tilted its pod out of reach and laughed satanically, tormenting Seymour. As its laughter continued, everything in the shop began to turn completely blood red as the neon sign's horrible glow intensified. The most horrible factor of it all was that Seymour could still hear Audrey's muffled voice crying out to him from deep inside Audrey II. _

"_Audrey," he gasped, before collapsing to the floor with his head pounding, __**This can't be happening, it just can't...**_

"_Game over, Seymour!" the Audrey II mocked his efforts before entangling him in vines so that escape was no longer possible before pulling him into its mouth to meet his fate. _

_And as he was drawn closer to the tunnel of black that was Audrey II's throat, Seymour could hear the faintest sound of lovely Audrey still crying out his name from within, "Seymour! Seymour! Seymour..." _

***

"Seymour? Seymour? Seymour, wake up! Are you alright?" Audrey cried as she nudged her husband awake and turned on the bedside light. She had woken up, frightened as she could be listening her husband act out part of an evidently horrible dream as he nearly screamed a few seconds before she decided to disturb him.

Seymour sat straight up in bed, breathing heavily, and looked at Audrey's face. He was back in his bedroom with his wife beside him. The shop, the plant, and her death had all been just a nightmare. It was one of many nightmares recently, but this had been the only one that he had ever acted out to the point of alarming Audrey while they slept. Startled and ashamed of himself, he turned away and crawled to the other side of the bed, trembling from the imaginary horror.

"You had anotha' nightmare didn't you?" Audrey asked, coming to his side to hug him sympathetically. "You're okay now, don't be upset..."

"Oh Audrey! That was awful!" Seymour muttered, trying to hide his face from her as he shook all over in fear.

She hugged him more closely, making hushing noises and rocking him back and forth very gently with a maternal fervor. "We shouldn't have watched that movie. That's what made this one so bad, wasn't it? We'll talk about it."

Seymour looked over at the alarm clock and saw that it read three-o-clock, and instantly felt guilty about depriving Audrey of anymore rest. "No, you go back to sleep. I…I don't want to talk about it."

"Seymour, I really think we should talk ab-"

"No Audrey, I'm fine now. I don't want you to be worried about me."

Audrey frowned and pulled on Seymour's back, making him look her into her eyes. "I'm your wife. Being worried about you sorta' comes with the job."

"Please Audrey, I'm fine," he said more calmly. "Please..."

She backed away to her side of the bed and switched the light off. "Well, try to get some sleep, honey. I love you."

"Yeah..." he grumbled, lying down again. As silence ensued, he regretted how he had shut out Audrey's affections. _I shouldn't have treated her like that. She deserves better from me after being so nice to me,_ he thought, breathing deeply and releasing some of the tension on his mind.

Moonlight flooded through the bedroom window, illuminating objects within the room with a heavenly, early-morning glow. Seymour stared intently across from him at a tiny photograph in a tin, heart-shaped frame that had sat in that exact spot on the bedside drawer for years now. There was Audrey, holding a baby Julie in her arms with Seymour beside her. This photograph was his favorite of them all, but now the happiness it showed was hollow. The man who sat with his hand resting on his wife's shoulder, smiling at her and their only child, was dead, or was at least hiding somewhere in his long lost memories. The worst of it was, he had left this broken man to slowly decay in his place.

He turned away from the painful sight and gazed up at the ceiling, wondering, _What do I do now?_


	2. Bad Pancakes

_**Return to Skid Row**_

**Chapter Two: Bad Pancakes**

Seymour awoke from his spare hours of sleep to a blinding morning. The sunlight made him wince and he placed his hand on his forehead to block the rays. His eyes stung slightly and some of his bones ached from not receiving proper rest, but he managed to stretch his arms and see through the blur to find his glasses on the bedside drawer. Once he felt wary enough, he got out of bed to go to the kitchen where he could smell coffee brewing and buttery pancakes frying. With a yawn, he trudged out the door, passed by the kitchen and walked into the dining room, then plopped into one of the table chairs where he sat down across from his young daughter. He noticed that she was drawing something with a brown color crayon, but he couldn't identify the drawing yet.

Audrey smiled at him from the kitchen where she was making breakfast. "'Morning honey," she said. "Feeling any betta'?"

"A little," Seymour lied.

Julie's face suddenly brightened and she stopped drawing. "Hey Daddy look, I drew Rover, see?" She held up her drawing of a brown, squiggly blob proudly with her words.

"That's great," Seymour answered, trying to sound somewhat enthusiastic despite his weariness. "Why don't you go and put it on the fridge?"

"Okay," Julie piped before heading to the kitchen.

Audrey took the drawing lightly and tacked it on the refrigerator door with a butterfly-shaped magnet and smiled appreciatively, but then her face turned sour when smoke began to fill the kitchen, flooding it with a stinking cloud of black. Audrey gasped, realizing that the pancake she had been making was burning while she had been distracted, then rapidly took the pan off the heat.

"Oopsie! Guess I should pay more attention when I cook these things," she said.

Seymour and Julie coughed as the smoke invaded their lungs. "No, _-cough, cough-_ really, _-cough-_ it's okay..." Seymour said, with a pretend smile as he tried not to make his wife feel foolish.

Audrey scraped the blackened cake off the frying pan with a spatula and shook her head. "-Anotha' one for Rover. Come here, boy," she called the dog, placing what remained of the pancake on the floor on top of a white platter.

Rover obeyed and came to the plate, but only took one sniff of the charred pancake remnants before deciding that it was not a good idea to eat it. He tiptoed away from the non-edible slag once Audrey had turned around to open the kitchen window and let out the smoke. She then handed Seymour a cup of coffee, all the while huffing and puffing her rodent-pitched coughs.

"Did you get enough sleep?" she inquired once she had found her second wind.

"Not really," Seymour answered. "That nightmare was a real doozy."

"Daddy got a bad dream?" Julie asked innocently.

"Mm-hm," Audrey answered, walking back to the kitchen to retry her pancake making.

Seymour swallowed his coffee in large gulps. He knew that he would fall back asleep if he didn't drink it, but the call of rest was irresistable. Despite his best efforts to stay awake, Seymour finally let his head flop on the table and shut his eyes. Audrey somehow caught wind of this, even though she was looking in the opposite direction.

"Ya know what I've been thinkin'?" she asked her husband without turning away from the stove.

"Ughhh…?" he grumbled in reply.

"I've been thinkin' that what we need is a vacation."

"A vacation?" Seymour asked, lifting his head up a little bit.

"Yeah. We need to get outta' this house for awhile and stop those nightmares for good!" Audrey declared while stamping her foot. "And I think I know the perfect place to go."

"Now Audrey, I know what you're thinking, but Hawaii's just too expensive," Seymour started. "A few years down the road and then maybe..."

"-I'm not thinkin' Hawaii this time, Seymour," she cut him off. "I was thinking more along the lines of…" She paused, then continued quietly, "_Skid Row."_

Seymour had taken another swig of coffee when his wife had spoken, but with that comment it was hard to keep the bitter liquid down his throat. He nearly choked on the stuff as he attempted a swallow before crying out, "_What?_"

"Skid Row," she repeated, coolly flipping her pancake over. "Is there a problem with that?"

"Well... yes, there is, Audrey! Do ya forget that we left that place and decided never to go back?" Seymour asked her with a shocked expression on his face.

"Oh, but Seymour, think for old times sake. We both used to live there, we met there, we even got married there!" Audrey begged. "Besides, Julie's neva' been to Skid Row."

"For a good reason. Skid Row is dangerous!" he argued.

"But Seymour, we'll be with her. And she always talks about how she wants to see the city, don't ya, sweetheart?"

"Uh-huh," Julie replied, caught in the middle of their argument.

"No. No, no, no!" Seymour answered, shaking his head. "Why would we ever go back, Audrey? It's not like I have any good memories there. I know _you_ weren't happy there either."

"But a trip down memory lane might help get rid of your..." She glanced at Julie and remembered that she was listening. "-_peculia' _dreams. Please Seymour, can't we go? Please?"

"Audrey..." he started, but then noticed his wife was giving him the "puppy dog look", which was a slight pucker of her lips like a kiss that twitched every now and then, coupled with the saddest eyes on a human face. Julie followed that up with the same trick as she enjoyed to do, and Seymour knew that he was losing the battle.

He tried to look away and resist. "Audrey, don't…"

"Pleeeeaaase?" Audrey asked again childishly.

Seymour sighed, then said, "I hate it when you do that. Fine, we'll go."

"Yay!" said Julie.

"Woof!" Rover barked.

"But I still think this is a bad idea," Seymour remarked at his family's joy.

Audrey walked briskly back over to Seymour and hugged him. "Thanks honey," she said.

Seymour smiled back, but then he smelled something foul and it changed to a smirk. "Is something burning?" he asked.

Audrey whiffed the air and caught the familiar scent. "Aw no, the pancake!"

Indeed the second pancake was burning, and this time it was on fire. Audrey squeaked like a mouse and flurried to extinguish it, while opening the window to let the bad air out. Another small fiasco of smoke, Rover's whining, and the family's coughing ensued.

After the air had cleared and the stove was saved once again, Audrey sighed, defeated, and asked, "Who wants to go out to Denny's instead?"

***

By the next day, the Krelborns were all packed for their two-day trip to Skid Row, Manhattan. Seymour took Monday off from work and Audrey canceled any private flower arrangement deliveries she had made just for the occasion. They loaded up their clunky blue car with their clothes and supplies for the four-hour drive to the city.

Seymour spotted a brown, furry stump wagging underneath the seat and dragged Rover out of the back of the car. The dog whined in resistance. He wanted to travel with his family to this new place but his master didn't approve.

"Come on, boy," Seymour said, trying to be sympathetic. "Somebody has to watch the house while we're gone."

Rover growled in response, then scampered out on the lawn in the shade of a nearby tree, trying to act like a loyal dog on guard duty.

"Have we got everything?" Audrey asked, shoving her briefcase into the trunk.

"I think so," Seymour answered then looked around in all directions. "Hey, where's Julie girl? Julie girl?" he called.

"Coming Daddy!" Julie's voice called back from inside the house. She came out a minute later with her stuffed rabbit under her arm. "I couldn't find Bunny," she explained. "He was hiding under the bed."

"Are you all set then, Julie?" Audrey asked as Seymour closed the trunk.

"Yep!" she answered excitedly.

"Let's hit the road then! Oh, but Seymour honey, go lock up the house first," Audrey said to Seymour.

Seymour nodded and did as Audrey asked. He walked up to the porch and locked the front door before stopping and letting the keys dangle from the keyhole. It hurt to leave his cozy house, and he couldn't get rid of the nagging feeling that something bad was going to happen on their vacation, but he tried to disregard his personal thoughts and turned back to the car. With everyone inside the car now, he sat into the driver's seat and slowly backed up out of the driveway.

"Wait!" Julie interrupted, causing her father to slam on the breaks.

"What?" Seymour asked, agitated.

"I...um, need to go," Julie replied sheepishly.

"Oh," Seymour and Audrey said at the same time and looked at each other expectantly.

In the end, Seymour volunteered to assist their daughter. He opened the car door for Julie and followed her to the doorway before unlocking the house. After she went inside, he waited on the porch, tapping his foot to pass the time until she came back out. He happened to look down at his daughter once she came out and he was relocking the door. She had not gone back to the car, but stood still, watching him perform his task.

"What are you doing?" he asked, half ready to laugh at Julie's funny, little face.

She smiled and said, "Nothin'. I jus' don't wanna leave without you. Come on, let's go!" Then she smiled and ran back into the car with a spring in her step.

Seymour shook his head at Julie's antics as he followed her back. He wondered if he had ever been that go-lucky when he was four, but then disregarded the thought. Growing up as an orphan from the wrong side of New York, Seymour couldn't remember being very happy in his childhood at all. Still, he often asked himself if Julie took more after him or Audrey as far as her overall personality.

Once again, he climbed into the driver's seat and backed the car up, this time without interruption.

As the car backed out onto the street and beyond, Julie rolled down the window and poked her hand out to wave calling, "Bye, house!" as if it was an old friend of hers. Then she shouted to her dog, "Bye-bye, Rover!"

Rover watched the car go down the street with his family inside until it was gone from his sight. For all he knew, this would be the last time he would see his family; the nice man who would let him run around on the lawn, the woman who fed him supper, and the little pup who played with him and secretly snuck him nice things to eat beneath the table. He pinned his ears back as he gave a small whine and slumped down, head on his paws, knowing that his loneliness had only begun.

***

For a few hours, the little blue bug rumbled down the highways and back roads toward its destination. Seymour made only two stops, one for lunch and one pit stop, so they made fairly good time. By now they had rolled through every car game from "I Spy" to "Twenty Questions" and Julie was becoming quite bored. She tried to attract attention by yawning loudly, but this proved to do absolutely nothing, so she tried the most classic trick in the book, taking a deep breath before she asked, "Are we there yet?"

Audrey turned her head and answered, "Soon now. It'll be real soon."

"How soon?"

She repeated more firmly, "Soon."

Julie frowned. "I wanna be there now."

"What d'ya want me to do Julie?" Seymour asked. "Turn the car into a rocket and blast off to the city?"

Julie smiled. "Yeah, you can do that?"

"No Julie, I can't. It was a joke," Seymour answered.

"Oh," Julie said, feeling belittled and foolish.

Seymour noticed her reaction and tried to apologize. "Look, I didn't mean it that way; I'm just a little tense is all. Could you try to entertain yourself for me, Julie girl?"

"Okay," Julie replied and looked out the window. She was silent for another thirty seconds or so before she asked again, "Are we there now?"

The drive went on in its slow and grueling way. By the time New York City was in sight, Seymour was just about at his wit's end with their daughter, but the radio and Audrey's stories managed to keep her somewhat entertained and she kept quiet for the latter half of that twenty minutes. Now Julie was watching the city skyline with wide eyes outside her window.

"Wow, they're taller than a-a… _t'ousand_ houses!" Julie breathed, spotting the towering skyscrapers.

"I know, the buildings are big," said Audrey in somewhat awe herself.

"Hey, 'dat's the building King Kong climbed on!" Julie exclaimed, pointing to a very tall building with a needle-like projection from the top.

"That's the Empire State Building, Julie," Audrey said. "It's one of the tallest buildings in the world."

"Do people live in there, Mama?"

"No sweetie. They live in apartments, houses, or out of town like us," Audrey answered with something of a laugh at the thought of people living inside the skyscraper.

"Where'd you live?" Julie asked.

"Me? I lived in an apartment," Audrey replied. "And your fatha'... well, he used to live in, um..."

"-A basement," Seymour finished her sentence forlornly. "I used to live in a basement."

Julie gave her father a confused look. She could not possibly understand how he could have lived in a basement. "How long 'til we get to Skip Road?" she asked using the incorrect term.

Audrey chuckled. "Afta' we check in to our hotel we'll go down to Skid Row. Try to be patient, sweetie."

Julie sighed. She didn't like the idea of waiting for things to happen any longer, but she knew that raising her voice one more time would get her into trouble. The only solution was self-entertainment, but she didn't know where to start. After the car drove into the city, there was so much to be seen. New York City life was a remarkable sight to behold for a little, suburbian girl. The lights, sounds, and people were fascinating to look at. Unlike the families with their houses, clothes, attitudes, and just about everything else that made them all the same back home, these city dwellers that strutted around the sidewalks and crosswalks seemed so exciting and unique. Men and women of every culture, race, and look possible were part of the buzzing crowds and lone adventurers. These curosities left her mind when she got to looking around at every building's shape, color, and size, and then a million more questions entered her young mind.

Imagination and curiosity buzzing, Julie did not notice how slow and dreary the drive was becoming or the heaviness of her eyes. She took her Bunny friend and pressed him against the window to rest her head on him like a pillow, and continued to gaze outside at this new world passing by.


	3. Audrey and Julie

_Author's Note: For this particular chapter I used some of my more dramatic character theory for Audrey. I am only adding this note to alert purists that I might tweak a little with the image of Audrey that you all have in your heads. Well, carry on with the reading!_

_*S. Snowflake_

* * *

_**Return to Skid Row**_

**Chapter Three: Audrey and Julie**

"We're here," Seymour said as he parked the bug on the street outside of the hotel.

"Did ya' hear that, Julie?" Audrey asked to no answer. "Julie?" She turned around to find her daughter snoozing and smiled. "Aw, look at that, Seymour. She's sleeping."

"That explains why it got so quiet," he joked.

"Try not to wake her up," Audrey said quietly.

"Okay," he whispered. "I'll check us in while you take her up to the room."

Audrey nodded, opened Julie's door almost silently, and then picked her up, not forgetting to grab Bunny by one of his long plush ears as well. A taxicab drove by, the driver honking its horn loudly at another cab that had sped past him.

"Hey!" Audrey yelled at the loud car. "Can't you see my baby's sleepin' here?" She paused then chuckled at her remark. _Yep, I'm back in New York all right,_ she thought as she followed her husband through the hotel lobby's glass rotating door as he checked in, then went up the elevator with the room key in hand.

Hotel room 49 was rather small, for even temporary living quarters. It contained just one bed, a minuscule compartment of a bathroom, and a tiny closet. The whole place smelled heavily of cleaning fluids and aerosols, which made Audrey's stomach ache imagining what the maids were trying to cover up as she put Julie down on the bed. A few seconds later, Seymour barged in through the door, carrying all three of their suitcases in his hands as best as he could before dropping them on the floor to catch his breath.

"You didn't have to bring them all in by yourself," Audrey said, shaking her head. "I would a' helped you."

"Well, I thought you had your hands full," he replied, and looked toward Julie sleeping.

"True," said Audrey before sitting down on the bed beside Julie and sighing just a little. "It's been a long drive for all of us. Maybe we should let Julie sleep some more; just for another hour?"

Seymour glanced at his watch. "It's two-thirty-three, Audrey. If we're going back to see Skid Row we should go now."

"Oh, but we can't just wake her up like that."

Seymour did not want to concede, or even be on this vacation, but the sooner he could say to Audrey that they had returned to Skid Row and it had somehow magically solved all of their problems, the better. Then he got an idea and said trying to compromise, "Okay, what if I go down to Skid Row by myself and find us something to eat, then you and Julie can catch a taxi and meet me there?"

"What?" Audrey asked, surprised. "You want to split up?"

"-Like you said, it'll only be for an hour. You look tired. You should get some rest, but I feel antsy. I could use to get some air that doesn't smell like orange cleaner."

Audrey nodded, but was unsure if she really agreed with his plan. "All right, Julie and me will meet you Downtown by the old shop."

"-Sounds good," he said and headed towards the door. "But remember, one hour. Okay, Audrey?"

"Uh-huh," Audrey agreed with yawn.

She stared at the door for a while afterward and sighed, already wishing that Seymour hadn't left her alone. She never enjoyed being separated from her husband for very long, especially in an unfamiliar place like this. She decided to lie down and curl up into a ball, turning to her sleeping daughter. There were few times when Audrey could not help but smile at her little girl. Julie was so happy, carefree, and un-knowing of the world around her. She made Audrey remember the times when she too had such an innocent and happy outlook on life, though her childhood seemed so distant now, and fogged by unhappy thoughts.

Audrey's childhood was one of perpetually hard and sorrowful times, with her mother Marianne, her father Rupert, and sister Julia, living in their miserable Skid Row apartment. She remembered always being poor, and never having good things to wear or eat, but at least she could be grateful that she wasn't living out on the streets with the bums. Life only became more horrible when Audrey's father ran off with another woman, leaving her mother to take care of their daughters alone, impoverished, and heartbroken.

It was a sad fact that from then on Marianne rarely showed Audrey sympathy and always had a bottle of alcohol by her side. She drove Audrey away. Julia was also victim to their mother's scornful misery, and the Fulquard sisters grew thick as thieves to have a real friend. Life stayed that way for ten, long years. Then, one terrible night, Julia went out with some friends and was crossing the street to come home when a black car came zooming out of the darkness and ran her over. By the time the paramedics arrived at the scene, she was already dead. Marianne mourned over her loss the next day by drinking senselessly. Audrey decided that there was no reason to stay with her mother any longer, for she had lost her only real family. As soon as Marianne fell asleep, she snuck out of the apartment and set off into the world.

Audrey spent the years after the accident attempting to make something of herself, but was having a very difficult time doing so. She was fired from nearly every single job she had until she found a near bankrupt flower shop called _Mushnik's Skid Row Florists_. Mr. Mushnik wasn't the kindest employer, but he required no floral experience to become his employee. Her co-worker Seymour was also a very kind and respectful man, and they became good friends working at the shop together, but still, it was not enough. As a sort of double job, she worked at the nastiest of Downtown nightclubs, _The Gutter,_ and became something of a whore in the process. It was there she met bad boyfriend after bad boyfriend, each one worse than the last, but none could quite match the misery she felt in her relationship with Orin Scrivello.

Orin was a cruel monster, always beating her up whether it was for his sick amusement or to express his anger. Audrey learned to think truly nothing of herself then, and gave in to her darkest instincts, but she remained gentle, wishing, and kind. Her hope somehow had not died with everything else.

If there ever were a person that truly was an example of the meek inheriting their dreams for enduring great suffering, it was Audrey. She was no longer the worthless nothing of a girl that many said that she always would be. She had so much to be thankful and to live for: A lovely house far from oppressive Skid Row. Her sweet, understanding husband Seymour who she would spend the rest of her life with. Their own child to raise with the great care and love that neither of them had truly known.

In that moment, Audrey wanted nothing more than to hold Julie in her arms and tell her that she would always need and protect her. It was Audrey's secret ambition to prove herself to be a better mother for Julie than Marianne had been for her. She restrained from showing such a burst of affection; her daughter would not understand.

At last, Audrey buried her face into the pillow to sleep. She smeared her makeup, frizzed her blonde hair a little, and at last closed her eyes contentedly, making the pain go away for now. _Maybe I'll take a nap too, _she thought dreamily_. Just for a few minutes..._

***

Audrey woke up when another car horn outside on the street caught her ears by surprise. She rose with a start and looked at the alarm clock. "What time is it? Oh, it's four-o-clock! Julie, wake up! Wake up!" She nudged Julie a few times until she finally stirred.

"Are we there yet?" Julie asked groggily.

"Yes, and I should've woken you up sooner," Audrey said. "We've gotta' go meet up with your daddy, we're late!"

Julie rubbed her eyes then looked around the room in alarm. "Where are we? Where's Daddy?"

"We're at our hotel and Daddy's waiting for us Downtown. Come on, we have to go catch him!" Audrey cried.

She dragged Julie off the bed, then tore at the suitcases, hunting through their clothes until she found their coats, and opened the door for her daughter, but had to wait for Julie to get Bunny before they could go. After finally escaping the hotel, Audrey flagged down a taxi as fast as she could and handed the driver a few bucks as she and Julie climbed into the back seat.

"Downtown, near Skid Row," she said quickly.

The driver turned and looked at her and Julie, confused that these nice people wanted to go to the worst part of town. "Are you sure, lady?"

"Yes I'm sure, and if you can get us there in five minutes you'll get a five dolla' tip, erm... Hank," she answered quickly glancing at his nametag in the mirror.

"Skid Row it is then," Hank replied, shaking his head then muttered, "Nuts..." before he pushed hard on the gas petal and burning the rubber tires.

Julie knew even at age four that a red traffic light meant stop and that Hank should have stopped in at least three red lights on the drive, but she did not know what a "five dolla' tip" was, and was too tired to care about it anyway. She let her head rest on her mother's arm, but was pushed back up firmly just as she began to get comfortable again.

"None a' that falling asleep stuff, Julie," said Audrey. "We've got to stay focused."

"But Mama, I'm tired."

"Yes I know, but we're late and your dad's probably runnin' around Downtown looking for us right now," she argued. "Besides, aren't you excited being in the city?"

Julie grumbled in somewhat of a response and buried her face into Bunny's fabric for the sake of her own comfort and pent-up frustration. After re-emerging from a world of soft plush, Julie tried to look out the taxi window and watch the new sights go by.

Like before, there were lights and sounds all around, but they were moving by much faster this time. Outside, the buildings became more of a dingy, gray or red color. They were older buildings than the ones uptown, and the people seemed to change as well. There were more old, more suffering, and filthy people here. Some of them seemed to be sleeping in the streets, though that did not make sense to the four-year-old who watched them, puzzled. The car bumped up and down from striking potholes and cracks in the street, which became a more frequent occurrence the further it went.

Then Hank stopped the cab at a street corner with a busted sign. "Here we are. Skid Row, in four minutes."

"Thank you," Audrey said with a half-smile, handed Hank the five-dollar bill she promised and opened the door for Julie who looked at him uncertainly before leaving with her mother.

Hank smiled at the little girl before driving away and muttering, "Nuts," again.

After the cab left, Audrey and Julie found themselves back to reality in the middle of Skid Row; a completely different part of town, or rather the world, alone. Julie shivered in the cold and looked all around, holding Bunny tight against her face.

"It should be about five blocks from here..." Audrey muttered to herself, regaining some direction before she thought of Julie and took her hand hoping that she was right. And so their little journey began. They stayed on the sidewalks, Audrey walking briskly with slight discomfort in her feet and Julie practically latched onto her hand. She had forgotten how uneven the Downtown pavement was after living in the suburbs with their perfect sidewalks for five years. Poor Julie, she realized, was terrified of everything she had to take in all at once.

"It'll be okay, sweetie," she said calmly, feeling more at ease on the walk. "Nobody's gonna hurt you while I'm here."

Julie looked up at her mother and loosened her grip, though she still refused to completely letgo. That was probably for the best. Audrey certainly didn't want to lose her in a place like this.

Audrey and Julie continued to march hand-in-hand down the jagged streets and sidewalks struggling to not trip over cracks. Above all, Audrey tried not to attract any local attention. Winos and street urchins weren't "scary" as far as she was concerned, but there were always the frightening sort that lived in the city too. Luckily, there were very few people wandering the streets at the moment. Nobody would be foolish enough, or have such a pathetic existence, to walk around one of the worst parts of New York City in the autumn chill.

As they rounded a street corner, Audrey noticed three girls across the street. They were African-American, and all wore the same lime-green dresses and black coats. She stopped and stared at them for a few seconds, recognizing them as acquaintances, and slowly remembered their names. She couldn't resist calling out tentatively, "Crystal? Ronnette? Chiffon?"

The three girls turned around in unison, as if they practiced moving together quite often, and gave her a rather dirty look, but then the one named Chiffon's expression changed to surprise and disbelief. "_Audrey?_" she said. "Audrey... is that you?"

"Y-yeah!" she replied excitedly.

The girls squealed in delight and raced across the street to meet their old friend. If they had any suspicion of a trick, it was past them now. Audrey was caught up in the excitement too, and made a characteristic squeak that could only be hers. She accepted a big hug from each of them, forgetting about Julie who tried her best to hide behind the blue curtain of her mother's dress.

"Girl, it's been years!" Ronnette exclaimed.

"Yeah! We haven't seen or heard a' you since you and Seymour got hitched," Chiffon added.

"-Didn't even leave one phone call," Crystal interjected.

"Oh, well, I'm sorry girls," replied Audrey. "But you know how it is. Afta' getting married you get kinda' busy."

Chiffon noticed Julie for the first time then. "Hmm, I can see that. Looks like you and Seymour have been _very_ busy." She pointed to Julie who was shivering just behind their friend's dress, making it rustle slightly. Ronnette and Crystal giggled before Chiffon hushed them spoke softly to Julie.

"Tell me, what's your name child?" she asked.

Julie peeked from behind the blue dress and looked toward her mother expectantly. She was not used to talking to strangers.

"Go on and tell her," Audrey whispered, nudging her forward slightly with a wink. "She's a friend."

Julie knew that there was no escape at that point, so she came out of "hiding" and answered quietly, "Julie."

"Nice to meet you, honey," Chiffon said warmly, taking her hand to shake it. "I'm Chiffon, and these two here are Ronnette and Crystal."

"Hello Julie!" Crystal greeted ecstatically waving her hand.

"Hi," Julie replied shyly.

"My, it _has_ been a long time," Ronnette said smiling. "I mean, you and Seymour having a kid... who'd a' thunk? Just look at her girls. She's got her mother's eyes."

Audrey grinned proudly. It had been quite awhile since she had heard a comment about her daughter resembling her. Julie was still not sure of what to make of these girls, but if her mother trusted them as friends, she supposed that she would have to smile for them as well.

"And your smile too!" Crystal added enthusiastically, noticing the girl's grin.

"And there's definitely some of Seymour in that face," said Chiffon.

"Uh-uh," Crystal nodded.

"Speakin' of Seymour, where is that little botanical genius husband of yours?" Ronnette asked.

"He's waiting for us back by where Mushnik's used to be. We were supposed to meet him there half an hour ago," Audrey said.

"By Mushnik's?" Chiffon asked with a smirk. "We were just down there and we didn't see anybody, especially not Seymour."

"-Unless he got rid of his glasses and turned into a wino after five years," Crystal joked, making the other girls give a good chuckle along with her.

"Are you sure?" Audrey asked, alarmed. "Ah great, now we've got to go _find_ him."

"Relax Audrey; I'm sure he'll turn up soon. In the meantime, why don't we go get somethin' to eat over at Shmendrik's?" said Ronnette.

"Shmendrik's is still here?" Audrey asked, surprised. "I thought they were closing down when we left town."

"They were," Crystal answered. "But after the Audrey Two craze, everyone Downtown got a little extra business. Even the Shmendriks."

"Audrey Two? Whas' a' Audrey Two?" Julie asked innocently.

"It-it's nothing, sweetheart," Audrey cut her off before either of the girls could say anything more and took her hand again. "Well it's been real nice ladies, but we really..."

"Aw, come on Audrey!" Chiffon said.

"-For your friends?" asked Ronnette.

"-Some of the best food Downtown!" Crystal shouted.

"Gee that does sound good, but I don't think that..." She was interrupted by tugging on her sleeve. Julie was looking up at her, begging.

"Can we go, Mama?" she asked. "I'm hungry."

Now Audrey was trapped. If Seymour really wasn't at the old flower shop, then maybe he was only around the corner near Shmendrik's, but it was just too hard to tell. _Oh why did I let him talk me into this?_ she thought before her stomach rumbled and she gave in at last. "All right," she said to Julie. "-But not too long, or we'll never find your daddy!"


	4. Old Friends

_**Return to Skid Row**_

**Chapter Four: Old Friends**

_I'm late! Oh God, how I wish I hadn't stayed Uptown!_ Seymour thought, racing clumsily out of the subway station's mouth and into the heart of Skid Row at four-thirty. He felt ashamed of his decision to wander about the city uptown rather than looking for a place for his family, but he was sure that he could find somewhere they could eat at the last minute. _What Audrey doesn't know won't hurt her, _he decided, ignoring the guilty pang in his stomach after conjuring the thought.

Guilt for being tardy was not the only thing that made Seymour uneasy, but also being back in his old home made him recall and regret the horrors that he had lived through. Blood, murder, extraterrestrial plants… all were the stuff of deranged nightmares of his past that somehow found their way into his memories whenever he felt alone and vulnerable. It was not uncommon for a monstrous plant to manifest itself in the shadows of Seymour's surroundings. Often, he would see the creature hiding behind him, preparing to strike and take the pawn that had eluded its hunger, but then the apparition would reveal itself as just a trick of the light or a neighborhood tree. Seymour would think that he had gone insane.

He could see Audrey II's perfectly horrid image when he closed his eyes. It took on various shapes and sizes, the smallest being a tiny sprout with pink petal-like cotyledons, the largest being a ten-foot-tall, green demon with a mouthful of razor sharp teeth like a shark. It was hard to imagine something that had started out as a seemingly sweet and harmless botanical discovery on Seymour's part soon became a monster. Seymour recalled how blissful he was when he bought the tiny and unique addition to his plant collection that he named Audrey II in the girl of his dreams' honor, and how, to his dismay and health decline, the little plant had an unusual and rather disgusting diet of human blood. Night after night, he let the leech-like plant suckle blood from his fingertips until it grew to be as large as a grown man. His motivation to do so was to keep his guardian's shop in business, for the plant was a local sensation. Every day he grew weaker and his heartstrings were continually pulled by watching Audrey, his only real friend, being beaten by her abusive boyfriend and his boss oppressing him every day of his life, making his mind go in irrational directions. He had just about lost his mind when the plant revealed another surprise: It could speak! The monster demanded more food than a man could provide without killing himself, so Seymour refused. Unfortunately, Audrey II knew another way to get the red meal it desired without feeding off its keeper, and that was murdering and mutilating other innocents.

Now with the plant and its bloody appetite in his mind, Seymour wanted to throw up.

Seymour would tell himself there were always the good times to look back on as well. After he and Audrey married and left Skid Row together, he felt that he was the luckiest man alive. He was deeply in love with his wife, as he had been when they were mere co-workers. He was ever enamored by her beauty, kindess, and desire for love and affection. They both were orphans in their own right, but when they were together, they had all the family they could ever wish for. They relished their quiet life in their tract house far away from the city, just as Audrey had always wanted. Perhaps it was not the fanciest existence, but to them it was the perfect life.

Only one problem confronted Seymour in that first year of he and Audrey's marriage, and that was when Audrey discovered that she was expecting a baby. Seymour was at first excited at the thought of being a father, but he soon began to worry. What if he would treat the baby in the only way he knew how to raise a child; making him or her scrub the floors? What if he could not take care of the baby because he had never had a real father? What if the baby didn't like him? It was all terrifying.

Luckily, all of those fears went away when Julie arrived. Seymour loved his baby girl from the moment he first laid eyes on her. He would try to teach Julie the few things he knew and would keep her far from harm. These were his goals as her father.

It had not been too long before the present year that the bad dreams began to visit him. At first they had appeared as only his memories about before, but over time, they had erupted into full-blown nightmares and occasionally day-mares. Sometimes, the dreams were more like time capsules, such as the hellish plant squalling for food. Other times, Seymour would dream visions of hell, like drowning in a sea of vines or slowly transforming into a plant himself.

The dream that came the night before last combined the present with a true horror of the past. A memory that still made his blood run cold was when he had walked into the shop the night to find Audrey stuck, half-way inside the plant's mouth. She somehow survived with a few telltale scars, a traumatizing view of the plant's mouth, and a ruined wedding gown as souvenirs, yet, in that moment of her rescue, Seymour was sure that lovely Audrey was dead.

_If something had happened to her, I would've just let that monster eat Me,_ he thought miserably before he stopped at a street corner, his feet screeching against the pavement as he put on his "brakes".

The address number of the building next to him was 1315, or two buildings away from the long gone Mushnik's Skid Row Florists. He froze, not sure if he should venture further and have a close encounter with the past. He trusted Audrey with all his heart, but he knew that it would be difficult to revisit the old shop. Taking a deep breath, he stepped around the corner, staring straight down at the dirty, cracked sidewalk. He rationalized that if he only looked up to see Audrey and Julie, perhaps he wouldn't have to see the remains of the shop. Slowly, his gaze shifted from his shoes to directly in front of him. Audrey and Julie were nowhere in sight.

"Audrey?" he called out to no answer, whipping his head around. "Audrey? Julie, are ya here? Damn, I told her to come here!" he muttered and turned the other way, still calling their names.

It aggravated him to think that Audrey hadn't listened to him, even though he knew that she had her moments of not being "completely there". She was not stupid, Seymour would never think his wife was stupid, but she was just a little too spacey for his liking at times.

_Well, what do you do?_

The only thing Seymour had overcome was not having to be near Mushnik's, which was momentarily a relief. Disregarding his past as non-existent was easy. He would simply ignore his present guilt and predicaments.

"So why am I still feeling so awful?" he asked himself. "-Ah! Keep it together Seymour. You can't let Audrey see you like this."

If only Audrey could have understood everything that made him so depressed. Then maybe there would have been no more problems between them, but Seymour did not want to make her worried about him and kept most of his thoughts private. Audrey and their daughter's life was to remain happy. It was a self-sacrifice that he was reluctant, yet willing, to make. Another thought entered his mind about Julie in that second.

"She should know what _really_ happened to us, the whole story," he thought aloud before doubting himself yet again. "-But that's too much for her to handle now, she's so little. She would turn away from me if she knew what I... Shmendrik's?"

Seymour's wanderings had brought him directly in front of Shmendrik's Diner, a place that had once been a greasy hamburger stand he had frequented when he lived on Skid Row. It was the same building, but it was far more renovated with a new cream-orange paint job and neon lights that stayed brightly lit in the clear windows. It was quite the contrast to the original, dying lights that he remembered flickering dimly through the cracked and filthy glass, surrounded by dilapidated brick bordering. By far the most striking sight about the new Shmendrik's were all of the customers inside. Some were even waiting in a line to be seated!

"What the...?" he asked himself and stepped in from curiosity, jingling the doorbells like something from a Christmas song. It was fairly charming inside as well. Bright, checkerboard linoleum tiles covered the floor, a jukebox played loudly in the corner and all the while the smell of freshly cooked hamburgers filled the room as the sound of a grill sizzling came from the kitchen.

It was true, the old burger joint he remembered was gone.

"Daddy!" a voice interrupted Seymour's reverie. He looked back toward the window and saw Audrey and Julie sitting at a table with three familiar girls who waved at him. Julie was evidently glad to see him because she ran up before he made two steps toward the table and hugged his leg.

Audrey smiled, sending the clear message, _We're here now, let's not fight about it._

"Hey, Julie girl." he answered his daughter, more relieved than anything else to be reunited with his family without an episode.

"_Seymour!_" said the three synonymous voices of Chiffon, Ronnette, and Crystal. He wondered if they were really excited about him being back or if they were just trying to placate him. However, since Audrey was with their group, he guessed that it was safe to socialize and walked over with Julie tagging along.

"Hello girls," he answered shyly to which all of them squealed and gave him a hug. After five years of separation from them, these girls still made Seymour slightly uncomfortable, as if they were hiding something he wished that he could figure out. Still, he was ever the gentleman and let them speak without showing clear resistance… at least he _hoped _that it wasn't clear.

"It's good to see you again, Seymour," Ronnette said.

"Yeah! Why didn't you and Audrey come down here sooner? We've all been wondering how you've been," Crystal added.

"Oh, come on, you're just sayin' that," Seymour replied modestly.

"Uh-uh Seymour, it's true!" said Chiffon. "You brought this place out of the dumpster and into the lime light." She wanted to say more, but their server, Al Shmendrik himself, came to the table with their lunch at that moment.

Al was a somewhat portly man, though not obese. His shirt was stained with a splash of grease and his chin had a gray layer of five-o-clock shadow. His voice was slightly gravelly, though soft and friendly at the same time.

"Okay ladies. Four burgers - two cheese two plain, and one order of fries for the little... Seymour Krelborn? Seymour ol' boy is it you?" Al asked excitedly, creating a small scene and causing some of the other customers to turn and stare.

"Um, yes?" Seymour replied unsure of his old friend's reaction.

"Ha-ha didn't recognize you when you first walked in, Pal." he said and looked over to Audrey before hugging them both tightly. "And Audrey too? Well, I don't know how I didn't recognize you, missy-I mean… _Missis_ Krelborn."

Audrey giggled. "Nice to see you too, Al."

Then Al turned to look at the other customers and pointed to Seymour. "Hey look everybody, it's Seymour Krelborn!"

Uproar ensued from almost every person sitting or standing in the restaurant. These were the Skid Row locals who knew Seymour and Audrey from before they left town. They clapped and whistled at Seymour as if he was some kind of celebrity as he stood still and watched the whole spectacle with disbelief.

"Gee, it's like I'm some kind of hero," he said when the applause died down.

"You are here, Seymour," Al replied. "You and that plant a' yours were the best thing that ever happened to us Downtown. Even after Mushnik demolished his shop, people came down here like you wouldn't believe! We ended up with enough money to save the place and finally renovate too!"

"I noticed," Seymour said. "I'm glad that everything's working out just fine for you."

"Yeah, you too. Last time I saw you two here; why, you were just kids with no idea what to do or where to go 'cause Mushnik was always holding you back in that shop of his. Good thing he finally loosened up and let you quit, eh?" Al chuckled, and Seymour winced after hearing what he said about Mr. Mushnik. "But you know, you've both done really well for yourselves. You've got each other, a house outta' town, and…" he recognized who Julie was for the first time then. "Well, that just didn't click 'til now. I'm guessing this one's yours?"

Seymour and Audrey nodded. "She's our Julie," Audrey said.

"Mama…" Julie started not wanting to cause another incident like when they had met the girls.

"Pleased to meet'chya, little lady." Al grinned and finished serving the burgers. "Well Krelborns, anything you want is on the house. You girls had better be with them though. You know I don't give out free food to moochers, especially to you three," he said, giving Crystal, Chiffon, and Ronnette a suspicious glare.

"Yeah, we're with you ain't we, Audrey?" Chiffon asked.

"Oh, yes," she answered earnestly, but still feeling bad about not paying her friend what he deserved for being such a good host. "But I'll pay for the lunch anyway, Al."

"Don't worry about it, Audrey," Al replied walking back through the kitchen doors. "-Anything for my old friends."


	5. The Jukebox and the Smoking Gun

**_Return to Skid Row_**

**Chapter Five: The Jukebox and the Smoking Gun**

After the small celebration, business died down in Shmendrik's Diner and continued to do so as five-o-clock ticked away to six-o-clock and so on. The sun set over the city, and the streetlights blinked on to illuminate the walkways and street ways. It was getting late, and the group inside Shmendrik's Diner was mellowing down as Al switched the open sign to closed, letting only Seymour and his family stay to socialize with their three friends past his normal business hours. He swept underneath the tables without saying a word to allow his friends to have a good time. Audrey and the girls sat catching up on each other's lives at the window table and Seymour and Julie played together by the jukebox, humming and moving along with its tunes.

"-So then I got fired again," Chiffon finished her depressing typical life of a Skid Row girl story. "-But you would get outta' that job too."

"-Sounds rough," Audrey commented. She realized how good of a position she was in as a homemaker and floral consultant after reflecting on her own job issues from before and with hearing her friend's. "So you girls still haven't met the right fella's for you yet then?"

"Nope," said Ronnette, shaking her head. "You got lucky with Seymour over there, but you don't meet the right men on Skid Row."

"I guess you're right about that," Audrey said, staring dreamily at Seymour twirling Julie around to the music. She smiled at his affection for their daughter. "Seymour really is the greatest. We're- we _were_ really like a team, you know? We did everything togetha'."

"Were? Did?" The girls said.

"Oh, well, I mean, things changed a little," Audrey tried to cover her error. "But Seymour is the perfect guy. He takes care a' me, and he's a great dad for our little girl. We're a happy family now. At least I couldn't be happia', but…"

"B-u-u-u-t?" Crystal asked nosily.

"Well, to tell you the truth, I don't think Seymour's been feeling too well lately," Audrey whispered before her voice became slightly deeper as her personal thoughts were released. "Things have changed between us lately. He gets these horrible nightmares and he won't even talk to me anymore, like he's afraid to or something. I just hope he knows that I'd still love him no matter what."

"Well, have you told him that?" Chiffon said.

Audrey paused. "-Well..."

"Audrey, I'm surprised at you," Ronnette said. "Seymour may be the most understanding little guy I've ever met, but you can't expect him to read your mind. You've got to make him _feel_ loved. How else can he be happy? I mean, you two are perfect together. Don't you mess that up. You've got somethin' better than you did with that chump you used to hang around with."

"Orin?" Audrey interrupted, not expecting an answer from her friend. "I didn't love Orin, not like Seymour," she continued. "-But I never forgot him after he disappeared." She looked away as if she were about to cry. "They pronounced him dead right before we left. They had an obituary in the paper and everything. He died alone, without any family or friends to mourn him. I still feel like it was sort a' my fault for what happened."

"Well don't, honey," Crystal said compassionately. "We all wanted him dead too after how he treated you. He was hazardous to your health."

"Yeah, maybe you're right," Audrey replied absent-mindedly. There was so much more to Orin's death than her friends knew, but she had no choice but to keep the past hidden.

"Come on, Daddy!" Julie said, hopping up and down for Seymour on the other side of the room. "Dance one more time?"

"Aw, no Julie. You know I'm a bad dancer," he replied, shyly looking over at the girls and hoping they weren't listening. Unfortunately for him they were.

"Please, Daddy?" she begged, giving him the dreaded puppy dog eyes.

Seymour sighed, knowing that the argument was over. "Alright, but this is the last time tonight."

Then he performed some sort of a dance between a shimmy poor tap or stomp that was overall ridiculous. Julie laughed, and Chiffon, Ronnette and Crystal snickered teasingly. Audrey watched the scene with a grin of feeling complete. After more than five years, Seymour still was physically the same clumsy man she had fallen in love with. She was grateful for that.

Seymour abruptly stopped dancing like a lunatic when the song changed to "Stand By Me", looking a bit dejected and embarrassed after making a fool of himself.

"Hey Audrey," Crystal whispered. "Go on over there and dance with Seymour."

"What?" Audrey asked, caught off guard by the question. "I don't know..."

"Come on!" Chiffon insisted, nudging Audrey out of the chair. "Just like you said, show him how you really feel."

"Go over there!" said Ronnette.

"-Yeah, go over there!" Crystal blurted.

"All right, all right," she agreed, looking at each of them with a giggle before walking over to Seymour who was busy glaring at his talentless feet. She took his hand and made him look up at her face. "You wanna' dance with me, Seymour?" she asked, blushing faintly.

Seymour tried to argue despite the surprise from her question. "-But the girls are watching, and Julie girl too. Besides, you know I can't dance..."

Audrey put a finger to his lips. "Right now nobody's here except you, me, and this song." She grinned and laughed in her throat. "And you do dance, Seymour. It's... your own style. I like it." She pulled him closer, put her hand on his shoulder, and slowly moved from side to side with the music.

Seymour had no choice but to dance along as best as he could to keep up and not fall over. The more time he spent dancing with her, the less nervous he felt about it. His wife being so close to him filled him with comfort, and leaned his head on her shoulder as they moved to lovely melody of the song. It didn't matter if he looked good dancing anymore because he was dancing with Audrey, his one true love. A strange, magical feeling filled his heart, and he no longer knew that there was anyone in the room but them, and even if there was, he did not care anymore.

"Why are you doing this?" he asked, whispering in his wife's ear.

Audrey smiled at him. "Why wouldn't I?"

"-Because... well, we don't do this kinda' stuff anymore. And-"

Audrey pulled her husband close to her face and said, "You know honey, sometimes you talk too much." Then she kissed his lips softly and affectionately.

Crystal, Chiffon, and Ronnette watched the spectacle of the couple together with a smile of adoration. Their friends' dancing was neither smooth nor coordinated, for Seymour had two left feet and Audrey found it difficult to move along in her high-heeled shoes, but it was touching. There was still that flicker of passion that hadn't quite died when they kissed too. They were the strangest, yet sweetest couple.

"Audrey sure is lucky," Ronnette said.

Crystal and Chiffon sighed in response.

Julie, quiet and youthful as ever, stood at the jukebox, watching the lighted tubes that created a calming mood for the music as it played. The colors inspired her to think of fantastical things like magical worlds and great adventures that she could embark on. The warmth given off by the machine's surface was like the body heat of a living creature, and she wondered if the jukebox could actually come to life in her imaginative space. She wasn't thrilled when she turned around and saw what her parents were doing and she whipped her head back, hoping they would stop kissing soon.

"Yuck, mushy stuff..." she mumbled.

***

"Goodnight, girls!" Audrey said as the party left Shmendrik's for the night outside on the stoop.

"Goodnight, Audrey," Ronnette answered. "Will you be here tomorrow too?"

"Yeah, we're here for all a' tomorrow then we head back home on Tuesday," she replied.

"Well who knows, maybe we'll see you after work," Chiffon said. "It's been great seein' you three. Come on, Ronnette, Crystal, we ain't on vacation like them." She started walking back toward the building where they lived on Skid Row with her friends walking in a line as they always did.

"Bye Audrey, bye Seymour!" Ronnette called over her shoulder as she walked away with her friends.

"-Bye bye, Julie!" Crystal added before they walked around the building and out of sight.

Julie smiled. "I like them," she said.

"-Me too," Audrey agreed, taking Julie's right hand as Seymour took her left one so that she walked between them to a cab curb outside of a bar. Audrey separated and tried to catch a cab.

"Taxi!" Audrey called to a nearby car to no results before saying to Seymour, "That was a nice visit."

"Yeah, it was good to see those three again," he said. "I forgot how good friends you are with them."

"We go back a little, but I'm not their best friend or anything," Audrey replied, still scanning the street for a taxicab. "It's kinda' funny how they were with us when a lot of things happened way back when, don't you think? They'd always be around the shop or talkin' to us. Like when we got togetha'; do you remember how they were watching us? To most people that would be… well, _weird_, but I actually thought it was sweet of them. Everyone here's being so nice to us. Nothin' like how I remember this place, it's so…"

She was cut off as a man ran out of the bar door behind them, forcing the family to back away swiftly unless they wanted to be ran over. He panted like a dog, and hunkered down on the pavement, looking up at the Krelborns' faces while they tried to leave but for some reason their legs were stuck like glue to the spot.

"You've gotta' help me," he choked out before the door opened again even more forcefully and another man trudged out. This man was several times larger, evidently drunk, and for some reason very angry with the cowering fellow on the sidewalk, growling at him like a brute.

"You thought you got away from me? I wasn't done with that contest and neither were you." He hiccupped shortly and staggered to keep on his feet from intoxication. "Come on, one more drink and then we'll see."

"Joe how many times did I say it? You had eight shots already, and you won! Why can't you just let me go home already?" the man on the sidewalk tried to say. Seymour wondered where he had seen this before.

"Because we had a deal, you owe me fifty bucks, right here, right now. Hand over the money!" the drunken brute Joe commanded darkly.

"Julie, get behind me," Audrey commanded, pulling Julie back protectively with one hand. "Seymour, let's get out of here!" she said, slowly backing away, but Seymour stood strangely frozen at the scene. "Seymour!" she tried again to no luck.

"L-look, Joe, I've only got ten on hand. I'll have the rest a' the money for you by next week." He dug deep into his pocket and fished out ten dollars. "Look, see? I don't want any trouble with you, Joe!"

"Don't want any trouble? I'll show you trouble!" the lividly angry man yelled before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a handgun that he held shakily at the man's forehead.

The victim only had enough time to look up the barrel of the gun and then back at Seymour one last time before the drunk pulled the trigger, fired the bullet, and finished the deed. The body fell to the ground with a flop, and the world stood still for a second as death soaked into the air. Julie screamed as her mother rapidly lifted her into her arms and took her to the other side of the street to escape the scene. Meanwhile, Seymour stood motionless by the body and the man who had just committed a crime he had once tried to commit himself, on a night that he would never live to forget…

* * *

_The sound of air moving through plastic tubes and the gasps of a man running out of breath filled the dental examining room. Seymour watched the scene unfold from behind his outstretched hands. He was afraid, determined, and probably crazy for thinking that he would try to kill Audrey's sadistic boyfriend and feed Audrey II with his body, but now fate would present itself with an advantage that made it so that he did not have to finish off the fiend with his own hands. He stood by, afraid, confused, and maybe even planning as he watched the man die._

_"What did I ever do to you?" the greasy dentist Orin Scrivello asked desperately from inside the nitrous oxide gas mask that would end his life. _

_"Nothin'," Seymour had replied, lowering the revolver he held in his shaking hands. "It's what you did to her."_

"_Her?" Orin asked, confused under the spell of the nitrous oxide. Then it hit him. Seymour could see the realization in Orin's face as he uttered his last words. _

"_Oh... __**her**__." He fell down dead with the tell tale blank look in the eyes. And soon after were the even more terrible horrors…_

_"Chop it up, boy! Feed me!" Audrey II ordered somewhere in Seymour's mind. Next, he heard the metal "twang" of an axe as it struck the pavement with each successful blow to the dentist's body he made, severing it into several tiny pieces. After he finished with that deadly deed, he shoved the bloody chunks into the monster's mouth one by one as it laughed maniacally into the dead of night, begging for more…_

* * *

"Seymour, come on!" Audrey shrieked on the other side of the street. "Seymour, can't you hear me?"

It was after he heard Audrey's voice that Seymour's shock subsided and reality returned to him. He knew where he was, what he had just witnessed, and where he and his family should have been right then, which was anywhere but near this horrible crime scene. The killer looked up from his prey at Seymour, menace showing in his shadowed face through piercing eyes. In sheer terror, Seymour found the strength to move again and ran to his family in the cab.

There was not any talk of the events that the Krelborns had witnessed or anything else in the taxi. All were silent from their fear, numbed by the universal truth that terrible things did indeed happen in the world despite the fact that nobody ever wants to believe that they were true. Seymour's strategy was to look out the window of the cab and try to distract himself from the nightmare of a flashback he had just lived through. Audrey bit her lip as if she were keeping a horrible scream from escaping. Julie was the hardest to read of the three, staring blankly at the windshield and the traffic lights passing by, and showing nothing in her face at her inner devastation, but kept silent the whole way, gripping Bunny's paw tightly like a stress cushion.

Once the cab reached the hotel parking lot, Audrey exited and scooped Julie out of her seat hastily before rushing into the lobby. "I'm sorry," Seymour said to the driver handing him the money. "We've… had a rough night."

The driver nodded before Seymour opened the passenger door and followed his wife into the hotel. He knew that Audrey was reacting out of fear, but it hurt to see her like this. She placed Julie down on the bed quickly before she walked to the corner near the tiny closet and buried her face into her hands. Seymour tiptoed into the room shortly afterward, and was quite surprised when Audrey turned her head sharply toward him.

"Why did you do that?" she asked him as her face turned pink from frustration. "Why did you… _freeze_ like that?"

"I'm sorry, Audrey. I really am!" he replied, startled by her hostility and attitude. "I don't know what came over me."

"Do you know what could've happened to you? You could have been…" Her voice tapered off as she heard a soft, sad sound.

It was Julie, crying on the end of the bed, shaking and wheezing slightly between sniffles of air and choking back sobs. She did not wail or utter a word in her whimpering, but rather bravely tried to keep herself quiet. In her fear and anger, Audrey had forgotten that Julie had been listening and how frightened she must have been. "Julie, sweetie, it's okay," Audrey said, sitting by her daughter's side before wrapping her arms around her in an embrace. "You're okay now, everything's all right."

Julie's cries became more heavy and vocal, and her shoulders shook before a flood of tears escaped. Between sobs, she choked out a few words and looked Audrey in the face. "Mama, why'd he do that? Why'd that man do it?" She hid her face onto her mother's shoulder, soaking her dress with teardrops.

"-Shh, shh," Audrey whispered calmly. "We don't know why sweetheart, he's just a bad person. He did something terrible, and now he's gonna' pay the price. You'll see." She held Julie close, hurt that she was so frightened and upset. "It doesn't matter now. We're all here, safe and sound. Right Daddy?" she asked, turning to Seymour who still stood in the doorway watching.

_"He'll pay the price," _Audrey's words ran through Seymour's head. _"He did something terrible… he'll pay the price." _As Seymour thought, he swallowed a large amount of saliva, but a large lump materialized in the middle of his throat and prevented it from going down. An icy chill moved through his body as he shivered with fear slithering down his spine.

"_Right_, Seymour?" Audrey said more sternly, but also concerned by his spacing.

"Huh?" he muttered, still half-trapped inside the guilt before Julie looked up at him and he remembered what was going on. "Oh... We're okay now, Julie girl, that's all that matters. Nothing's gonna' hurt you now," he said sweetly and at the same time concealing something Julie could not read.

Julie looked at her father with a terrified and sorrowful child's look. "Could he really have done that to you, Daddy?" She sniffled and a new tear welled up in her eye. "You wouldn't come back."

Seymour looked into her eyes as he stepped in closer and spoke slowly. "I'm not going anywhere, Julie. If you need us, your ma and me are here for you. Nothing's gonna' take us away. You know that, don't ya?"

Julie nodded and sniffed back hard from her crying.

"Here, take this," Seymour said, taking a Kleenex out of his pocket and letting Julie dry her eyes and blow her nose. She whimpered a bit after that, but did not say another word, and mostly spent her time taking deep breaths to keep from crying any longer. "Feel better?" Seymour asked.

Instead of replying with words, Julie smiled faintly, leaned toward her father, and hugged him for reassurance. It caught Seymour by surprise, but he accepted it and stayed in that spot. The icy cold feeling in Seymour's heart melted away again, temporarily giving way to the warmth that he wanted to feel so much. He finally swallowed the spit wad in his throat all the way, holding on to Julie for just a bit longer, as if it would be the last time he did. For a moment, the shadow of Audrey II in his mind went away. Nothing bad could touch their little family, not while they were together.


	6. You're the Same

**_Return to Skid Row_**

** Chapter Six: You're the Same**

By an hour later that evening, everything was quiet again. Julie had relaxed and finally fallen asleep, but she was the only Krelborn who was successful in finding sleep. Seymour sat in a chair, staring blankly out the window and the cars that drove by below, while Audrey sat in the bed reading a book silently beside her daughter. She was rather unsettled having been more than patient all day long, and was tired of keeping quiet throughout these issues. She had to know what was bothering Seymour.

"Seymour?" she asked, and waited for him to look at her. "Seymour, I know we've had it rough today, watching that happen and all, but I just wanna' know about something. Why did you freeze up back there?"

Seymour continued to look outside at his window view. "I don't know Audrey. It just made me think about things," he said without turning to her.

"Ya' mean about before? -With the plant?" Audrey asked curiously.

He nodded, still facing away from her.

"Seymour darling, you know that's all behind us now." She sighed. "That… _thing_ is gone for good, and it's neva' coming back."

Seymour shook his head. "It doesn't matter if that plant's alive now; it's what I did to keep it alive while it was that matters," he said sadly, then added with more determination, "I hated that creep of a dentist with all a' my guts, I really did after I saw what he did to you, but he didn't deserve to die like that. Then Mr. Mushnik wanted to do the right thing and turn me in, but I led him to his death! And then it tried to eat you and I thought I'd lost you…"

"Hold it. Hold it," Audrey interjected. "I didn't get eaten because you saved me, Seymour. Isn't that the important thing, that we're here togetha'?"

"Look Audrey, I'm glad you're alive. You deserved to be happy after all you'd been through, but Audrey Two was a monster and it turned me into one too." He paused. "And I don't know if I'm happy that _I'm_ alive now."

Audrey stopped, set her book in her lap with the pages faced down, then stood up and walked over behind the chair. "You are not a monsta', Seymour. A monsta' wouldn't care about what things he did, but you do, and that shows you've got a good heart. I've always seen that in you. And don't say scary things like that. You've got so much to live for. You've got a nice place to live, a beautiful little girl," She put her hand on his shoulder with a smile. "-And a wife that loves you so much."

At last, Seymour looked up at her face. "You weren't there. You didn't see what I did. If you had seen me chopping up Orin and feeding him to it, you wouldn't love me."

"Stop, stop!" Audrey said, raising her helium voice and Julie stirred a bit. For a moment, she thought she had woken her, but luckily Julie continued to sleep. After a breath of relief, she continued in a more heartfelt voice, "Now, you ought a' know by now that isn't true, Seymour. I made my choice a long time ago, and I chose you because you understood and cared about me more than anyone eva' did before. You stood by me, and told me that I could put my horrible past behind me as long as I had somebody to love me for the girl I am. I knew that you weren't like all the otha' guys I met, you really did respect me and loved me, and… I loved you back. I believed in what you said then and I believe in you now." She smiled and hugged his shoulders. "Ya' see, you're still the same Seymour I fell in love with five years ago, you just don't know it."

Audrey sealed her words by kissing Seymour's lips with sweet affection before walking back toward the bed.

Seymour stayed seated in the chair, but soon he could not help but feel guilty about what he had done to Audrey from frustration and his own shame. She had shown him endless affection and loyalty through all of this, the least he could do was return the favor.

"Audrey?" he muttered, half hoping that she had not heard him as he stood up out of the chair, but he still caught her attention before she could lie back down.

"Yes, Seymour?" she asked, watching him closely stuck to the spot.

Seymour stared back, calculating what to do. They both wondered what would happen next before Seymour found some courage, then walked up to her calmly and kissed her back on the lips. It was long and seemingly passionate, but Audrey could tell that there was nothing but raw pity in it. Not an ounce of real meaning was left on her lips as they came apart.

"Was that like before?" Seymour whispered, regaining a breath of air. "Was that like the kiss I gave you on the day I told you those things?"

Audrey smiled apologetically and held his hands in hers. "Almost. But you'll come back, I know it." She yawned, and covered her mouth with one hand before speaking more tiredly, "Come on honey, let's get some sleep. We've still got anotha' big day ahead of us tomorrow."

Seymour frowned from her reaction as he trudged to the corner and changed into his pajamas. Audrey continued to try reading a few pages of her book, but could not seem to keep her eyes away from Julie. How the girl slept so peacefully was something of a marvel after the day she had lived through. She travelled miles from her home, walked around the most horrid neighborhood of New York City, and witnessed a shooting. With that kind of day, she was fit not to sleep at all, yet she seemed contented and happy. "Get all the sleep you need," Audrey whispered almost silently, flipping a lock of Julie's brown hair over gently with her hand to look at her face. "Poor baby girl. You saw too much tonight."

Seymour sat down on the bed then, with Julie sleeping between him and his wife. Just looking at his daughter made him critically think over the events that had transpired that night. Julie had every right to be afraid. Most grown people should never have to see someone die in their lifetime, and she was only four when she saw it. The most painful thing to Seymour was that he had done absolutely nothing when that dangerous man could have easily killed Julie, and the thought of something happening to her was simply unbearable.

_What kind of a father am I? _Seymour asked himself inside his head.

Just then, Julie smiled in her sleep and said under her breath from her dream, "Dance one more time, please Daddy?"

Seymour grinned and lied down at last, closing his eyes and perhaps feeling a little better after all. _Well, I guess I'm not too bad._

Audrey was satisfied at her husband's change of demeanor and turned out the light. For now, she could only hope that her lovable Seymour Krelborn would stop hiding and try to put the past behind him. Julie seemed to be the one little thing that could sometimes bring the old Seymour back. Maybe there was hope.

Soon, the spell of sleep overcame Audrey's thoughts and sent her those memories she enjoyed visiting so much in the middle of the night. Butterflies of the subconscious mind began to flutter their way into her dreams. Every thought was beautiful and different in its own way, rather like the shimmer of the insects' wings, and they were all part of a large flock of imagination. Audrey could not remember how heavy her eyes began to feel and how her ears began to tune out the traffic of the city below, but she did remember plenty of other times and emotions as the butterflies danced in her head…

***

_"Do you like it, Audrey?" Seymour asked softly as they drove up to their new house in the little blue bug after their quiet Skid Row wedding. "It was the only one I could find. I know it's a little small, but-"_

_"Oh Seymour, love it! Come on, let's go inside!" she interrupted after taking just one look at the house, hugging him tightly in the passenger seat. _

_They emerged from the car (Audrey in her flowing wedding dress and Seymour in his suit), then took each other's hand and stepped through the gate calmly, but could not resist running inside like children into a candy store. It was so surreal after living in Skid Row for all of their lives. Everything was so tidy, welcoming… and not covered in garbage and sludge! Every window was crystal clear, every faucet worked, and even the plants in the garden seemed so perky and delightful. Though the rooms were void of furniture and other necessities at the time, Audrey could see everything the house would become with the right ideas and work. _

_"It's going to be everything I've dreamed of!" she exclaimed on that day as she twirled around in her gown and leaned on her husband romantically._

_Seymour smiled and put his lips to hers gently. "Yeah," he said when they came apart and put his arm around her. "I've got you. That's all I need."_

_"Aw, Seymour, me too." Then she giggled and kissed him back._

_The little tract house did become more of Audrey and Seymour's vision as they added furniture, decorations, and their love. Never had a place become so pretty so quickly as their home. It was a more than comfortable house for the two of them to live in, and it was their version of home sweet home. In Audrey's mind, there was no better place on earth for them to be together and start a family, though sometimes wishes seemed to come true for her when she and Seymour were least prepared for them. _

_Early the next October. they sat on the sofa together, watching the television advertise products in commercial break. They leaned on each other, almost snuggling, so that they were kept very warm side by side. When Audrey felt a light kick from the baby that she was carrying, she patted her swollen belly, as if to tell the baby that it was safe._

_Seymour looked very nervous when he looked over at her. "Are you okay?" he asked her frantically. "Do I need to call the doctor?"_

_"I'm fine honey," Audrey replied. "The baby kicked again, but I don't think it's comin' tonight." _

"_It could be any day now couldn't it?" he said, knowing the answer already._

_Audrey nodded, still happily watching the TV._

_"Do you think that the baby will… like me?" he asked rather naively. _

_Audrey looked back at him and smiled. "Aw Seymour, I __**know**__ our baby will like you. You're gonna' be a great daddy." _

_Seymour seemed a little more at ease with that response by showing Audrey a smile and holding her hand. She squeezed his hand back gently for reassurance. Audrey knew in her heart that night that they could overcome any obstacle together._

_As it happened, the baby arrived the very next day. Audrey spent several hours in labor while her husband waited, incredibly nervous, from the waiting room outside the door. When, at last, the baby girl was born and Audrey had recovered, they called Seymour in._

_"Congratulations, Mr. Krelborn. It's a girl," said the nurse somewhat warmly._

_"A… a girl?" Seymour said before she passed him the bundle wrapped in a pink blanket._

_The baby cried a little. She did not know who this man was yet, and wanted to be back with her mother. At first, Audrey thought that Seymour couldn't handle it yet, that he needed to give their baby back to the nurse until she fell asleep, but then something changed. He bounced the baby up and down lightly, and she stopped crying._

_A tiny smile crept up his face and stayed there when he said, "Audrey… w-we have a baby!"_

_They both cried a little tear then because they had a family, something they both had wanted to be at least a part of all of their lives. Julie was the name Audrey chose for the child. It was a French variation of her sister Julia's name and its meaning was of youth and softness. It was the perfect name for the beautiful baby girl._

_On that fateful day, Audrey and Seymour's lives changed all over again. Through thick and thin, she and Seymour stuck out the trials of parenthood. More often than not, they sacrificed their sleep and relaxation time for Julie, but occasionally the little rewards of their love and devotion appeared. Audrey never forgot even the most trifle of joys and discoveries that their Julie would bring them._

_"Hey Audrey, you've got to see what Julie girl's doing!" Seymour called to her from the family room on one of these eventful nights when Julie was still a baby._

_"What is it, honey?" she asked, walking in the dim family room, worn from the day. _

_There was Seymour, standing Julie up on her tiny feet by holding her arms in his hands. It looked as if they were playing a game, although he strangely didn't bounce her up and down. He just sat there down on his knees, looking excited._

_"Look," he said with a small, victorious smile as he let go of Julie's hands. Julie stayed up on her feet with a small wobble, looked up at Audrey, then slowly moved her right foot forward. She moved her left foot as well before falling down and Seymour caught her in his arms with a small grin. This was a triumph because Julie had never taken a step until that night._

_"Oh!" Audrey squeaked before dashing to her husband's side, hugging Julie in her arms and showering her with small kisses. "That's my girl, makin' her Mama so proud! To think, she'll be walking around the house and saying words. Oh, won't that be great, Seymour?"_

_Under her parents' guidance and care, little Julie grew very quickly. As soon as she learned to talk, Julie soaked up new words like a sponge. Her curiosity never ceased, and that, combined with the ability to walk, made her a very adventurous toddler. She left no sidewalk left un-treaded, no stone unturned or (if it was large enough), climbed on. Yet despite her rambunctious streak, Julie was rarely defiant and usually a somewhat shy child. She respected her mother, needing her as all youngsters do but will never admit, and looked up to her father as if he were a hero. Life in the Krelborn household would not be complete without her. _

_The calm summer Sundays were some of the best days of all for the Krelborn family because the three of them could be together without Seymour's job or Audrey's housework interfering with family time. Julie would frolic like an elf on the front lawn with her trusty sidekick Rover while her parents would watch them lazily in the shade of the fence. Sometimes, the happy trio would go out for a walk or into town until they would watch the sunset at dusk. And sometimes Audrey and Seymour would sit out on the back patio after Julie's bedtime and look up at the stars together, thinking about what fortune tomorrow might bring. _

_Audrey remembered, before her husband's troubles started to emerge, resting her head on Seymour's shoulder, and wishing on some of those stars that her world would stay bright as long as those stars would never fade away…_

_Yes, Audrey loved the company of her butterfly reveries because they reminded her of the good things in bad times. She could conjure many more memories on a whim, and the surprise they brought was half the fun. _

_Another butterfly memory made its way into her dreams, with probably something lovely of the like, but came to a halt in mid-flight. Tangled inside an invisible web, the dream beat its wings desperately to escape the tangles before a giant, black spider crept its way over menacingly to the poor thing. It held the rose-winged creature still for its horrible fate before striking, sinking its fangs into the insect, and poisoning it and Audrey's mind both with ugly thoughts. _

_Audrey opened her eyes in the dream and found that she was no longer resting her head on Seymour's shoulder, but on the shoulder of a dark, sturdy man in a leather jacket, riding on a motorcycle as he drove like a maniac. The spider's mind toxin had taken her to a time and place before she and Seymour were wed or even together. The ride was not comfortable in the least, for Audrey greatly feared that if the motorcycle hit anything and she fell that she would be injured._

_"So, ready for that free appointment I promised ya?" the man asked her with a sadistic grin. _

_"T-today Orin?" she stuttered. "I thought you said next week would be…"_

_"I said to-day, you scatterbrained slut!" Orin cut her off furiously._

_"I'm sorry, Orin," she said under her breath. _

_"What-did-you-call-me?" he growled._

_"I mean… sorry __**docta**__'."_

He turned and looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "At least you're finally starting to listen to me." Then he laughed as he took a puffer out of his pocket and inhaled the nitrous oxide inside. "Oh, the things I'm gonna' do to your mouth!"

_Audrey gulped. She had only been dating Orin for three weeks, but already she was beginning to see the abusive side of his nature. Her wrists already had rings of dark and painful bruises like a bracelet from him grabbing and tying her up. What he could do to her mouth was a frightening thought. She didn't have much time to contemplate that thought though, as the motorcycle's front wheel struck a large pothole and threw her off balance. She flung from the bike with a short squeal as Orin drove away without her._

_The initial pain Audrey felt did not last very long, but her throbbing headache sent a wave of ringing through her ears. Another aching feeling was a wrenching in her right ankle that had resulted from her shoe heel sticking to the motorcycle's bumper and twisting as it drove forward. Cars swerved to stay out of her way, as she lay sprawled in the street. She had little time or sense to assess her injuries lying there, and could hear voices asking her if she was all right, but she could not cry for help. Then she heard Orin's motorcycle engine as it drove back to the crowd of distressed citizens and to her side._

_"It's all right, folks," she heard Orin say, stepping off his bike. "She fell off my motorcycle, and I'll take care a' her."_

_"Bless your heart, sir," An old woman said as Audrey felt herself being lifted into Orin's arms and slumped on his back before they speedily drove out of the intersection. _

_After five minutes of riding around the city had rolled by, most of Audrey's grogginess had subsided. She knew that she had a sprained ankle, possibly a head injury, and that she should head straight to a doctor to get them treated, but her boyfriend wasn't driving anywhere near the hospital. "Orin, I think I need to lie down," she said as they pulled into the alleyway behind her workplace at Mushnik's Skid Row Florists._

_"Oh, I'll let you lie down!" Orin yelled suddenly. He stopped the bike with a jolt of anger before he knocked her off the seat. At least this time she had the sense to flail her arms and soften the landing. "Stupid woman; you made me look like a fool! Fallin' off my motorcycle…"_

_"I'm sorry docta', I'm so sorry!" she pleaded before Orin kicked her in the stomach with such force that she lost her breath in shock. He then pulled her back up onto her feet and slapped her across the face. "Please, please, just take me home, docta'! I'll never do it again, I promise!" she managed to squeak._

_"Maybe I would take you home if I was feelin' more generous, but not tonight!" he growled and flung her onto the pavement again. "You can walk home." _

_"B-but docta'…" _

_"Don't you argue with me, worthless woman! I'll see you next week… if I even want to keep you around."_

_ Then the dentist got back onto his motorcycle and drove away, leaving her to fend for herself in the middle of the night. Audrey tried to relieve her inner pain by crying, but that only brought the throbbing headache back with even greater strength. Her vision began to fade, and her head pulsed from blood rushing where she had struck her head. She felt strangely very numb and almost peaceful before everything went black._

_***_


	7. The Empty Lot

_**Return to Skid Row**_

**Chapter Seven: The Empty Lot**

Morning arrived like an unexpected guest, bright and chipper but intrusive. Audrey was the first Krelborn to wake up as a ray of sunlight shone on her face, yawning before remembering her restlessness the night before. The dream she had about Orin had not been a fantasy or abstract nightmare, but an all too real part of her past that she thought had been left behind her for good. Every ache, sting, and scar from his brutality marked her flesh and memories, but then another more chilling thought settled in that made the former idea seem light in tone. Out of her desperation and agony, she had wished that Orin would just perish and she would have her own life with someone she loved. How ironic it was that the person she loved most was the one who made her grisly wish had come true.

She looked over at Seymour who was snoring peacefully beside her. He was never anything but kind and loving to her, perhaps stubborn or naive for his age at times, but nothing more horrible than that. How could this man who seemed so innocent and good have committed murder? Biting her lip, she put the thought away.

_You can't blame him. He only did it because he wanted to protect you, and so it's your fault too for what happened,_ she thought, and then glanced over at the alarm clock to get the time. "Eight fourteen," she muttered before nudging Seymour's shoulder.

"Uh, ah! W-what?" Seymour said, jumping awake. "Ah, dreams…" he muttered.

"Sorry to wake you up honey, but it's time we talk about something… something we didn't talk about last night," Audrey said seriously.

Seymour grabbed his glasses from under the bed and put them on to assure her that he was listening. "Okay, I'm listening to ya'."

Audrey took a breath and spoke, "It's time we go back to Mushnik's and leave the past in the past like we said we would do. That's why we came, isn't it honey?"

Seymour lowered his head. "I don't know if I can, Audrey. You don't know how hard it is for me to do this. What if something happens again?"

Audrey made a hopeless smile and crawled over to his side of the bed, carefully stepping over little Julie. "I won't ever understand everything about your life, and you don't know everything about me neitha'. But I do know that you can leave it behind if you listen to your heart and look around at everything wonderful you have." She softly hugged Seymour. "You won't be alone. I'll be right there beside you all the way. We're in this togetha', I promise."

"Okay," was his only response coupled with his wonderfully childish grin.

Audrey smiled back before turning to nudge Julie awake. "Julie? Julie, wake up sweetheart."

The little girl turned away from the prodding hand on her shoulder, slowly coming out of the state of sleep as she sat up and rubbed her eyes.

"Good morning, Julie," Audrey greeted her daughter.

"Good morning, Mama," Julie answered with a yawn and opened her eyes. She then got a frightened look on her face. "Mama, we aren't going back to Skid Row today, are we?"

"Well, yes we are Julie," Audrey replied. "We're going back to the flowa' shop today to see what's left of it." She then recognized Julie's fears and put her arm around her shoulder. "I know, honey. Last night was horrible for all of us, but it's only one more visit. We don't have to go back if you don't want to afta' that."

Julie could have argued, but smartly decided to go along with the plan and gave her mother a small smile to show that she was all right. "Could we go see the building with the needle on it or the big green lady afta' that?" she asked.

Audrey laughed. "I'm sure we could fit in some sight seeing for you, Julie. As long as nothing unexpected happens."

***

The trio boarded the nearest subway and headed straight Downtown since the underground train was a bit cheaper than taking a taxi. It was obvious they were from out of town from their slight struggle to keep standing whenever the train came to its jerking halts. Fortunately, the ride ended quickly and they rose out of the station mouth, greeted by the stench of car exhaust, and knew instantly that they were back on Skid Row.

Downtown was notably more crowded than it had been the day before. Most likely this was because it was a Monday (a workday), and most of the residents that worked Uptown were commuting to work at this hour. With some determination, the family stepped into the crowd, breathing the icy cold air into their lungs as they walked hand-in-hand down the sidewalk. Along with all of the somewhat chilling conditions, Seymour and Audrey had a case of jitters about reencountering the remains of their past, and shivered more than usual.

"Did you hear about what happened down at that bar last night?" a man passing by with his friend said that Seymour could not help but overhear.

"Yeah, a guy got shot and everything," his friend commented. "'Police haven't caught him, but I'd bet it's Joe and Pat up to no good."

Seymour stopped abruptly and turned around to eaves drop on the strangers, ignoring his wife's questions as to why they had stopped walking.

"Somebody had to have seen it," the first man continued. "Somebody's gonna' get it…"

"Seymour? For goodness sake, what are you doing?" Audrey asked firmly.

"Uh, nothing. I just… thought of something." Audrey's worried expression caught his eye. "Come on, let's keep moving. I don't want anybody to recognize us again."

The mass of pedestrians continued to come out of nowhere for the next two blocks as they ventured further into the heart of Skid Row. Gum covered their every step and there were cracked sidewalks everywhere they walked.

Then, quite suddenly, they stopped walking as Audrey halted at the corner of an apartment complex. "See that window there?" She pointed to a window directly in front of her, mostly speaking to Julie. "That's my old apartment." Once she had mentioned that, Audrey separated from the group and walked timidly to the front stoop, touching the step railing with her right hand nostalgically. "-But, that was years ago."

"Where's that place over there?" Julie asked, pointing to something across the street.

Seymour turned around to look at what his daughter meant, and froze dead in his tracks. Audrey spun around soon after, changing her beaming smile to an open-mouthed gawk. Just across the way, an empty lot sat in place of a small building like the others around it had once sat, completely cleared of any trace of what had once been there, and the ground was covered in a sheet of near white concrete. This was their destination: the remains of _Mushnik's Skid Row Florists_. Slowly but surely, Seymour and Audrey crossed the street with Julie following along, neither of them saying a word to each other. They stopped and stared, their daughter looking confusedly from her mother's face to her father's face and back again.

After a little while, Audrey looked to Seymour and almost whispered, "Go on."

Seymour glanced back before giving her a nod. His footsteps barely made a sound as he let go of Audrey's hand and stepped forward into the empty space. His eyes darted rapidly behind his glasses, as though tiny mice were scurrying beneath his feet and he would jump away in fright, but what he actually saw was an even greater hallucination. The blank white cement turned into black and white linoleum patches and the bordering graffiti-covered walls morphed to a pastel yellow hue. More simple and distinguishing things began to materialize. A counter with a cash register sat in front of the back wall, a floral refrigerator stood just past the front door, and "Mushnik's Skid Row Florists" was painted in gold letters on a large glass window where a few plants were inside. The only sound he could hear was the ticking of a clock above the counter as the time portal continued. This was the world of the not-so-distant past that he had often seen in his dreams and nightmares, but never had he recalled it so vividly as this.

The flower shop was long gone, but it had left a burning imprint on his memory. It had been his home throughout his childhood, and Mr. Mushnik had been his boss and his guardian. Mr. Mushnik was such a colorful character. He was always pessimistic about life, though that made sense being he was so financially endangered from his lousy business. He took Seymour in from the Skid Row Home for Boys when he was only six, and rarely called him anything but Krelborn, as if Seymour did not possess enough character to have a first name. Yet throughout childhood, Seymour looked up to the stonehearted man as the person to whom he owed his life. After all, he never had known his parents. Mr. Mushnik was the closest person to a father he had.

***

_"We sold three roses today, sir!" an eight-year-old Seymour Krelborn announced to his boss after the long day of work. He took off his oversized glasses and cleaned them with his shirt as he spoke. "That's three times as many as yesterday."_

_"Yeah, __**what**__ an improvement," Mr. Mushnik mumbled sarcastically. "One day I should sell this dump to someone who can make it a better success and make a buck or two for myself on the way, but it's who to sell to that's the question."_

_"You don't have to sell the shop, sir," Seymour said hopefully. "All we've got to do is make these plants a little greener and healthy and loads of people will come down and buy the flowers, I just know it, Mr. Mushnik!"_

_Mr. Mushnik sighed and shook his head as he locked up the shop for the night and stepped out to go to his real home. "It would take some kind of miracle for this shop to get good business, but if it ever did become successful, you'd be the only person I could trust with the place, Krelborn."_

_Seymour beamed proudly. Mr. Mushnik had given him a complement and had entrusted him with the business after he could no longer run it himself. It was a remarkable thing for him to think at eight years old that one day he might inherit the shop that had been his home and job for so long. He would make his boss so proud that he might do such a kind thing, call him Seymour, and maybe even officially adopt him as his son. A family that he could be part of was the one thing that young Seymour longed for most of all._

_…But Mr. Mushnik never showed his paternal pride for Seymour. As the years passed and Seymour grew older, his outlook on life began to shift toward goals of leaving Skid Row to get a new start and discover the person he really was and could become. Once Audrey came to work, he dreamed of taking her along for the ride and never letting her go, but Mr. Mushnik would never let the employee that had worked for him for so many years leave because of a few microscopic ideals called dreams. It seemed that the older Seymour grew, the colder Mr. Mushnik behaved. Perhaps this was the product of his impatience with his "misfit employees", or the result of his age catching up with him, but weariness or being closer to death could not explain or justify what had happened when Seymour and Audrey II would take his life away forever._

_"You love her madly, don't you, ya' shmuck?" Mr. Mushnik coldly asked Seymour on his bi-monthly Sunday off after he had confessed his love to Audrey. "I always knew you dreamed about her, but I didn't know the lengths you'd go…no, the __**depths you'd sink**__ to get what you wanted." _

_"W-what depths? What sink?" Seymour asked, trying to curl up and hide on his cot. His emotions were a jumble of the leftover joy of his first kiss with the love of his life as well as this strange and sudden confrontation._

_"I saw everything, Krelborn! An axe murderer, livin' under my own roof!" Mr. Mushnik yelled. How he had learned of the bloody crime was a mystery, but there was no time to think about that now. "After all I've done for you…"_

_"Alright, it's true. I chopped him up, b-but I didn't kill him!" Seymour tried to argue defensively before his boss held a revolver up to his face._

_"Tell it to the police!" Mr. Mushnik growled as Seymour's hands flew in the air. _

_This was the ultimate betrayal for Seymour. The only father figure in his life was about to turn him in to the police as an axe murderer. How could Mr. Mushnik not see what that dentist did to Audrey? She always wore long sleeves to hide her bruises, she endured long beatings, and she always came in late from being tied up or handcuffed (or both). Mr. Mushnik cared about her too, why couldn't he see the justification? _

_It did not seem that there was a way out as Mushnik led Seymour up the stairs with the handgun to his back, but something changed that would destroy the prospect of Seymour paying for his evil doings._

_"Maybe there's a way this can work out," Mushnik said cunningly with the gun still pointed at Seymour. "I can get'chya a one way ticket outta' here, Krelborn. You could lay low for awhile while I keep that plant a' yours. What d'ya say?" _

_Seymour did not respond at first, but the Audrey II behind Mr. Mushnik's back seemed to be begging for another victim. It opened its great, gaping maw, and somewhere he heard a demonic plea of, __**"Come on! Come on! It's suppertime…"**_

_Seymour gulped. "You just have to feed it," he said, and did not explain what to feed the plant as they loomed closer to the monster. __** What am I doing? Am I pushing Mr. Mushnik towards the vegetable? No, I would never do that. He gulped and continued, **__"-but whatever you d-don't… Sir!"_

_He never finished that sentence as Mr. Mushnik turned to look at the plant with its open jaws only to be chewed and swallowed like a scrap of meat for getting too close. The old man cried out three times as he realized what was going on from inside the monster's mouth, "Seymour? Seymour! Seeymooour!"_

_Once the nightmare was over and Mr. Mushnik was gone forever, Seymour cowered to the shop floor, guilty and horrified again. As the darkness faded away and the plant grew larger from that meal of human flesh, a terrible thought sank into Seymour's mind about the future. He knew that Audrey II would be hungry again all too soon, and that __**he**__ would be responsible for the death of whoever would become its next meal. _

_He had heard it said that the meek would inherit, and now he saw that the meek would get what was coming to them…by and by._

* * *


	8. The Tell Tale Rabbit

**_Return to Skid Row_**

**Chapter Eight: The Tell-Tale Rabbit**

Seymour's flashback ended as quickly as it had started, but left him far more hollow and guilty than he had felt before and with so many burning questions. If everyone thought that he was such a good person, then why had he done those bloody, evil things to get what he wanted? If those deeds were not the product of his greed, then why had he been the one to commit those crimes when he had never meant to do anyone harm? Why couldn't the killer have been some heartless person who did not have to go on and convince himself, his family, and the rest of the world that nothing wrong ever occurred after it all was said and done?

_I did it, didn't I? I killed my own father._

Seymour slowly bowed his head, truly disgusted and ashamed of himself, wishing deep into his soul that he could crawl back into the burrow he had slithered out of at birth and cease to exist.

Audrey stayed still through her husband's episode. She knew that this visit to the shop was painfully necessary to end the guilt that was destroying the Seymour she loved. Orin and most especially Mr. Mushnik's death were the roots of his troubles. She sighed respectively, and wished that relief would come to her husband.

Little Julie, so young and innocent, knew nothing of her parents' pasts other than the fragments she had been told, and so she had no idea why her father was standing in front of her with a look on his face as if someone had torn out his heart and threw it to the ground before his eyes. She tiptoed away from her mother in an almost hypnotic manner, and stood by his side.

"Daddy, are you okay?" she asked, hoping that he would feel less alone.

Seymour did not even look in his daughter's direction. "Leave me alone, Julie girl. Just go back to your ma, I-I don't feel too good."

"Are ya' sick?" Julie asked inquisitively.

"No. No…I mean, yes! Yes, I am sick. Now, please, just leave me alone," Seymour said, raising his voice with irritation at Julie staying by his side. "Please, just go…go on, leave me alone!"

Julie took a few steps backward and looked at her father with hurt confusion. "Daddy?" she said meekly.

Audrey stepped forward, noticing the situation and playing the pacifist again. "That's enough, you two," she said. "Julie, you stop askin' your fatha' all these questions. And Seymour, there's no need to talk to her like that, you're scarin' her."

"Well, maybe that's because Julie _should_ be scared of me. Maybe she should know about why we _really_ left this God forsaken place! She's lived with us for four years, it's about time she found out that I did some terrible things to get where I am!" he growled.

Audrey immediately reacted by fighting back. "Seymour, what's the matta' with you? Leave her outta' this, she's…"

"She's what? Too little? Too _precious_ to _know_?" Seymour cried out angrily. "That's it, we'll just keep lyin' and that'll solve all our problems! That's what you do all the time, isn't it? You always pretend that things are A-okay, but they're not, Audrey! Let's face it, terrible things happen out there. Killing, murder, lies, and insanity happen everyday, but you'd like to pretend that the world's just _fine_ for her?"

"Seymour!" Audrey yelled in her seldom-used deeper voice. "N-now, don't you talk to me like that, you-you-" She made a noise like a grunt before her voice resumed its high-pitched begging, and a heartbroken tone replaced her former one. "Seymour, please, unda' stand me. I didn't want this to happen to us coming here, I just want you to be ya' self. Please tell me what can I do to help you, Seymour darling. I just want you to be happy again. I want us to go back to what we had."

Seymour took a deep breath before looking down at the ground with depression in his eyes. "You can't help me Audrey, no one can. I can't be happy anymore. I've changed. I'm… well, I don't really know who I am anymore. _It's_ got to me again, worse than ever, and I can't stay here. It's too much. Do ya' understand?"

Audrey looked deep into Seymour's eyes, disheartened by their hollow stare. "I do," she answered, but did not move as Seymour started to walk away. "But I'm not leaving just yet. I think I need to stay just a little bit longa'."

Seymour glanced back at her and nodded before walking off. "I'll see you later, Audrey," he muttered.

The pain of taking out his anger on his loved ones was starting to eat at him. He and Audrey rarely fought like that, and he only raised his voice to Julie when she had done something wrong, so there was no reason behind the outburst except for his anger. The shadow of the Audrey II smiled and nodded in his memory, watching its victim slowly destroying himself as it aimed to do as feeding its vengeful hunger.

_And you call me a monster, huh?_ the entity said cruelly.

Though he was too distraught to admit it, Seymour felt ashamed.

Audrey and Julie watched Seymour walk away, both confused and frightened by his unusual behavior. Audrey's expression remained stern, and her breathing grew heavier as she huffed and made little white puffs appear in the chilly air like an over-worked draft horse might, before, finally, she grimaced and held her face in her hands. She cried for Seymour, she cried for herself, and she cried for everything she ever had to cry for. Memories of the lifelong pain she had endured entered her mind. The day that her sister had died and her mother sat in their apartment, weeping between sips of whiskey, then her horrible existence in the Gutter, that time when Orin twisted her wrist and she wore that black sling; all the inner and external agony that she could draw on a whim. She tried to fight it, thinking again about how much she loved her new life, but that only made her more sorrowful because poor Seymour was not so happy after all.

"Oh God, I've tried,"she muttered inarticulately. "I've tried so hard to make him happy, but I need help…"

Julie watched her mother cry and felt confused, sad, and torn. It was not often that she saw her mother cry, as she always seemed so calm and kind. Her father was also acting strange, almost sickly, and it was never good for them to fight this badly. If there was one thing that she knew, it was that her mother and father loved each other. She respected that, no matter how horridly romantic it tended to be. What she did _not_ know was the problem behind it all. She wondered why her father had said that he had lied to her, but more than anything, she wanted to do something to help him. Curiosity and impulsiveness never ceased to elude such a young troublemaker, and in this emotional mess Julie could not use her common sense. She crept away silently from behind her mother's back to follow her father, even though he was long gone from her sight and she had no idea where she was going.

_Don't worry, Mama, _she thought as if she were telepathic. _I'll get Daddy back._

After turning around the corner and giving a last look behind, Julie raced as fast as her little legs could carry her. She thought that she saw her father's khaki pant leg zooming around the next block, so she obeyed her instinct and pursued the familiar color with no fear or thought at first. After running down just a few blocks though, she began to regret her decision. The streetlights confused her, even though she knew that red meant stop and green meant go. Trying to push though the crowd was also unbearable, and she felt herself strangely pulled along with them.

After getting turned and pushed around in nearly all directions, Julie knew that she had become pitifully lost. The neighborhood that she found herself in now was still part of Skid Row, but completely out of sight from the former _Mushnik's Skid Row Florists_. In a mere few minutes, she had traveled down a few twists and turns that took her to the even lesser known and scarier corners of the slums. At last admitting defeat, Julie sat down at the mouth of a prominently deserted alley and clutched her stuffed bunny to her face, whimpering in fear.

* * *

Audrey only cried for a minute or so, choking back a sniffle before she stood up straight and rubbed her eyes. She noticed the odd silence that had followed Seymour's absence, and thought that it was very sad and respectful that her daughter had stayed quiet through her weeping.

"I'm sorry sweetie, but it's been a tough time for Mama and Daddy." She sighed and turned around. "Your dad's right you know, we haven't told you about some-Julie?" With a jolt, Audrey noticed for the first time that her daughter was not behind her or anywhere near the vacant lot. "Julie, sweetheart? Julie? Mama wants you to come back right now. Julie, where are you?" She moved out of the lot and looked down the street for the four year old. "Th-this isn't time to play hide-n-seek, Julie!" she cried out, fearing the worst when she received no reply.

She ceased to panic for a moment when she remembered her husband and hoped that fate had been kind enough for Julie to have simply caught up with him. Seymour could never get very far anyway, as he was very slow on the run. It was possible that Julie had followed him without her knowing it, and in that case she would only have to catch up to him to be sure.

_Yeah, it's only been a minute, and she would never run off, _Audrey thought for her own reassurance as she walked out of the alley as quick as her high heels could carry her.

She looked into every alleyway, around every street corner, and even tried to look into the uptown rush for a familiar face, but could find nothing distinguishing of either Seymour or Julie. This was not normal or safe. Julie sometimes talked about trying to run off like young children often do, though Audrey never had given her the chance to try it at home, and there weren't many places to hide except the park down the road. Here on Skid Row, there were endless labyrinths of streets and alleyways to get lost in, and Audrey could not imagine trying to look in all of them. Still, she kept her mind on the optimistic chance that Julie was with her father and moved on, swallowing fear and hysterics all the way.

Finally, Audrey saw something familiar out of the corner of her eye: a red baseball cap covering up a patch of messy brown hair.

"Seymour!" Audrey cried out, waiting for her husband to turn around. It took a few more cries for him to hear her and stop.

"Audrey?" he said. While Audrey ran up to him and caught her breath, he tried to apologize for his actions. "Look Audrey, I'm real sorry for what happened back there. I just…where's Julie?"

With that remark, Audrey's eyes widened. "Y-you mean, _you_ don't know where she is?" she asked, frightened.

Seymour looked at his wife with confusion and then with concern as he started to understand. "I…I thought she was with you!"

"And I thought…" Audrey squeaked and held her head in shock. She started to moved forward very slowly. "Oh no, no, no, no!"

"Audrey? Audrey, calm down," Seymour said with a worried tone. "Look, she couldn't have gone too far, we'll find her. Everything's gonna be okay."

* * *

Young Julie continued to slouch in the alleyway, shaking with fear as tears bubbled beneath her eyes. This was the first time that she had been alone in a uncontrolled situation. Compared to a visit to the babysitter, this was running away. It was fun to think while she was stuck at home of escape and having an adventure like a daring hero from TV, but now she would gladly trade that adventure back for safety.

"Whoa there little lady, what's wrong?" asked a warm and smooth voice from out of nowhere.

Julie looked up at the stranger who addressed her. He was a man of average height, not much taller than her father, wearing a tattered business suit, hat, and tie. _Go away, _she thought without answering him.

"What's wrong, little girl?" he asked again pressingly. "Are you all alone? Where's your mom and dad?"

Julie felt a tear fall on her lap before the salty droplets streamed down as she thought of her mother and father. "Daddy r-ran away, and-and" She took a deep sniffle and became completely without speech for a second or two. "-tried to catch him 'cause he was sad, and…I want my Mama!" she cried out suddenly.

"Aw kid, it's okay," the eager acquaintance said. "You know, I can help you find your mom and pop if you let me. What do ya say, little lady?"

Julie's eyes darted up at the man from behind Bunny's soft body, and then back down into the warm plush world, caught between his hospitality and her instinct to hide. She was desperate to see her parents again after all, and this man seemed friendly enough to be trusted. For a moment, she might have yelped in agreement, but then she looked back down into the button eyes of her Bunny conscience, and her furry friend reminded her of rule number one.

"No, I'm not s'pposed to talk to strangers," she replied.

"But if we meet each other we won't be strangers anymore," the man said while extending his right hand for Julie to shake. "-Name's Patrick, you?"

"Julie," she answered while shaking the hand, and then remembered what she was doing. "-But I'll stay here, Mr. Patrick sir. My mama's comin' for me, I'll be okay."

"Aw, but Julie, what if they don't know where you are either? This is a big town and people get lost here all the time. Me and my buddy know where we're going, and I'm sure your folks'll appreciate what we did," Patrick insisted.

Julie decided then that escape was her only possible option, and stood up to walk away. "No thanks, Mr. Patrick," she answered firmly.

"You're a brave little lady, Julie. I was hoping that it wouldn't have to come to this, but you leave me no choice. Joe, would you mind persuading this little girl to join us?" he asked to an unseen friend.

Just as he had uttered the words, Julie bumped into a tall man. She could not see his face beneath his thick coat, but his huge hands grasped her menacingly before she had time to move out of the way. He forced her into submission quickly so that she could barely struggle in his grip.

"Hey, lemme' go! Lemme' go!" Julie cried out, trying to kick her legs at the dark stranger. "Help! Help!"

"Damn, Pat," Julie's captor said, as he covered her mouth with one hand. "This kid's a whiner. You got anything to keep her quiet 'til we're done?"

Patrick stood up and tried to assist his terrible accomplice in keeping the girl still. "Yeah, sure. We might have something in the car. Just be careful with her Joe. Her parents won't want their kid back if she's in more than one piece. Trust me, people only pay for the whole product."

"I still hate kids, Pat. And I'd still rather be back at the bar," Joe replied as he held Julie with her head thrashing from side to side. "How much money do you think these people got anyway?"

"-Enough for me," Patrick replied as he walked over to his car and sat in the driver's seat and Joe opened the back door. "Come on already!"

Julie didn't quite understand what these men wanted from her, but did know that she had to put up a fight. She got one hand free from her kidnapper and flailed her stuffed rabbit at him. It failed to do anything except flop against his face. He snickered before taking Bunny by a long ear and tossing it to the ground beneath the car. Julie tried to squeal with all of her might for help, but found no voice. As they piled into the car, she whipped her head around to look at her captor's face, and was horrified to catch the glare of his blue eyes.

"Lemme out! Lemme out!" she screamed frantically moving about the car. "Mama! Daddy! Help me!"

The car's tires screeched the pavement and sped off, growling like a lion keeping a paw slammed down on a helpless mouse. Julie knew that there was no hope of being free by her own means, but she would still fight her captors in whatever way that she could.

"You won't get away with this!" she cried, remembering something from a western show on television. "My daddy'll come and save me."

Joe and Patrick both laughed as if she were joking. "That's what we're after, kid," Patrick replied. "I have a feeling your dad would pay any price for you."

***

Meanwhile, Seymour and Audrey continued their frantic search for Julie. The quest to find her had united them for now, making them a duo that would search the entire city twice to find their only child if they had to. They asked countless pedestrians if they had seen a little girl wearing a yellow coat, but had no positive responses. So many people walked by that they could not possibly ask all of them for help, and for those few who they did ask they were often told that there were lots of children running around town and they didn't know where one kid was, or that they had no idea who they were talking about. Eventually they had to resort to looking for Julie on their own. They ran down streets and sidewalks, checked dozens of stoops, ventured into about six or seven subway stations, walked through alleyways, and even poked around nooks and crannies behind dumpsters and halves of brick walls, but nothing revealed their Julie. Skid Row in all its horrid glory had never seemed so vast and bleak as it did then.

Suddenly something caught Audrey's attention and she separated from her husband, running toward the flash of gray and brown on the street in front of her.

"Honey, what is it?" Seymour asked when he caught up to her.

Audrey kneeled down and picked up the item that had caught her attention, and without moving anything else, bowed her head as her shoulders began to quiver. She sat very still in that pose at first, then turned ever so slowly to reveal what she was holding in her trembling hands to her husband. Her lips were pinched tightly and her eyes were half-shut with a tear in one of them. When Seymour laid eyes on the familiar object, he too did not know quite what to say.

She was holding their daughter's toy Bunny, flopped raggedly into her arms with a button eye hanging from its string and a tire track imprinted on its long, left ear.

***


	9. Seymour to the Rescue

_**Return to Skid Row**_

**Chapter Nine: Seymour to the Rescue**

An hour of searching passed by with no results, making Julie's disappearance an even more disturbing event. Neither Audrey nor Seymour wanted to believe that Julie might be in serious trouble. They preferred to stay in denial until at last they could deny it no longer. With horrid resolution, they drove down to the police station to report the disappearance. Some of the officers on the scene went to searching right away, although the chances of finding Julie in such a large city quickly were slim at best.

Another hour slipped away, and now the Krelborn couple waited in two chairs side by side in the station, broken and worn out from their search. Audrey sat uncomfortably in her seat with her arms crossed over her chest as she shook slightly and held her daughter's toy to her face to soak up the teardrops that fell continuously. Her face was red as a beet from the tears that streamed down endlessly, carrying with them all that remained of her eye makeup and making gray trails on her cheek, and every now and then she would choke back a sob or mutter something incomprehensible.

"Oh Julie…" she would start with the upmost depression. "-It's all my fault… all mine. Come back. Mama's so sorry that she eva' let this happen to y-you…" And she cried in that fashion for nearly an hour, distressing everyone around her.

"Ma'am-" an officer tried to console her. "We're doing all we can, but this ain't an easy job. The best we can do is stay calm and hope."

Audrey did not respond, but took a tissue and blew her nose profusely.

"Thank you, sir," Seymour replied for her.

The police officer turned back to the counter area and left the couple alone. Seymour gently put his hand on his wife's shoulder to help her feel less downhearted, but knew it would be a difficult task. He wanted to help her more than anything, but he was very distraught as well.

"Audrey?" he said quietly like he always did when he had no idea what to do for his wife. "Somebody'll call, I just know it. We'll get Julie back."

Audrey sniffled and lifted her head up slightly, but did not look at her husband. "But, what if it's not that simple? She could be in trouble. She could be out there, alone on the streets with some scary stranga'! She could freeze out there t'night, or she could be…" She paused, remembering the night when her sister disappeared. The black demon car that came out of nowhere that ended Julia's life surely would not mind taking another victim. "Ohh, God!"

Seymour sank in his seat. There was no hope in comforting Audrey until they knew what had happened to Julie, though the answer could be horribly devastating. Audrey's continuous crying was only making the situation harder to stand, and gave Seymour bad thoughts as well. He imagined Julie shivering in an alleyway and felt sick to his stomach. If there was one thing he knew, it was that he could not bear to stay in that chair any longer, and so he walked out the station door onto the sidewalk, staring up at the sky.

The span of black above his head showed no light, not one star or even the moon glowed up there. The cold night air was thick with smog and full of menace.

_Poor Julie, out there all alone on a night like this,_ he thought.

The world seemed so dark and mocking of everything terrible that was happening.

"So this is just how it is? Everyone in my life suffers, and would be better off without me," he muttered under his breath. "Why didn't that plant just eat me?" A shudder moved down his back at that thought, and he realized that his words brought no goodness or redemption. "I need help," he thought aloud.

Then something interrupted his quarrel with either himself or God. A payphone just down the way was ringing for somebody to answer, like a child's cry for help. For the first two rings, Seymour was hesitant to pick up the phone, but after three consecutive rings, he felt that it was important.

"H-hello?" he asked, grabbing the phone off the receiver.

"Are you the kid's dad?" a man's voice asked. "The kid named Julie?"

"Y-yes, I am," he replied, trying to remain calm. "-And, you are?"

"Name's not important, pal. The important thing is that I've got someone very important to you with me. And I'll be more than willing to offer you a deal on getting her back," the voice said coolly.

Seymour was at once hopeful, but then filled with anger. _So it __**was**__ kidnappers! _he thought. "I swear if you've hurt her… if this is some kind of sick joke, then I'll…"

"Relax, buddy," the voice interrupted. "The kid's fine. She just wants to see her dad. We're takin' real good care of her until then."

"Okay, fine. I've got to go talk to my wife and…"

"No, no, no. No wife around, pal. I can't guarantee this deal unless you show up alone. We wouldn't want anything to happen to Julie if any attention got brought to this, would we now?"

Seymour gulped. "Fine, I'll show up alone. Where do I go?"

There was muttering from the man on the other end of the line and then to someone else before he returned. "Go Downtown, then go down to the fifth alleyway past the dead flower shop. Be there in fifteen minutes with your wallet and all the money you've got, and the little lady will be fine and waiting for ya. See ya then." The phone clicked on the other end of the line as the kidnapper hung up.

Seymour held the phone in his trembling hands. He wanted to race back into the station, tell Audrey everything, and assure her that he would be safe, but he could not do that. Carefully he peeked back through the glass window and saw his wife still hunkered over crying and he swallowed.

_Don't cry, Audrey. I'll bring Julie back, I promise,_ he thought, before racing out of the telephone booth to the nearest subway entrance he could find. He was uncertainly, but determinedly, going back to Skid Row.

As he rushed past the police station, one of the officers spotted him and called out, "Sir! Sir!"

Audrey lifted her head up completely and saw just her husband's shadow go by outside the window. She couldn't help but feel a strange exhilaration at his heroic dash. "Seymour?" she asked almost silently.

* * *

_Breath! Breath! _Julie thought, wheezing quite heavily. Her panic attack had brought her asthma forth vigorously, though she still could grasp just a small bit of air. Where she was and where her kidnappers were taking her in this city she had no clue.

"My-daddy-will-stop-y-you…" she managed to squeak.

"What's with her, Pat?" Joe asked. "Kid's got some kinda' breathing problem?"

Patrick paused and listened to Julie's rasping. "Sounds like she's got what they call asthma to me, but I'm sure it isn't serious or anything. Once we get the money, the kid's parents'll help her out."

"So, where are we meeting this guy anyway?" Joe asked.

Patrick sighed. "Near that cleared flower shop. It's a place that I won't be forgetting anytime soon."

"Why's that, Pat?" Joe asked, ignoring Julie's kicking at his thighs.

Patrick turned around briefly and his face grew quite stern. "That's where my life ended. Thanks to some kid and his plant, I don't have a dime to my name." He grunted briefly and straightened his hat tightly on his head. "Come on, Joe. The kid's dad should be here any minute."

* * *

Seymour ran as fast as his legs could carry him to the alleyway where he was instructed to find and retrieve his daughter.

Thoughts raced through his head.

_What if this guy is lying to me and is just trying to get my money? But then, how could he know Julie's name? And, if he does have her, what if he's torturing her?_ A horrible thought occurred. _What if he decided to do something terrible to her? Would he really kill a little girl?_

Now he was more determined than ever to get to his destination on time and rescue Julie from the clutches of evil. By the time Seymour reached Skid Row, his leg muscles were burning from fatigue. Some street bums watched him racing by clumsily, but took no notice. What business was it of theirs if this little man with glasses wanted to run around Skid Row late at night? It was better that nobody knew of his mission anyway, as any police involvement might end it prematurely. The dark alleyways called out to Seymour, teasing him to not continue on to Skid Row and return to the safety behind him, but nevertheless he followed the orders. If Audrey II was going to try to bother him, it would have to wait until after he found his daughter, which evidently might be happening soon as he passed by 1313 Skid Row without thinking twice. The fifth alleyway was just beyond him, there was no turning back now. At last, Seymour found time to catch his breath.

_Please let me be right about this. Please let her be okay… _he thought desperately, standing at the mouth of the alley. He was afraid to enter, for it was almost pitch black throughout, and only a shred of moonlight found its way down into the middle. "H-hello?" he asked uncertainly.

Nobody replied, but almost instantly a lighter flickered as somebody in the back of this seemingly deserted alley lit a cigarette, then took a breath and inhaled the smoke slowly before releasing it back into the air. Through the darkness and blackening smoke, Seymour's already impaired eyes began to adjust to the sight before him. There was a man holding the cigarette, whose form was only illuminated by the yellow-orange glow of its tip. He appeared not to be very threatening, though something told Seymour that he was not alone. The man built up the horrid silence until at last he knew that Seymour could no longer take being patient and chuckled.

"Nice of you to join us, sir. Do you have the money?"

"Do you have Julie?" Seymour asked after swallowing his fear. "If you're pullin' my leg, it isn't funny, I…"

"Relax. Joe's takin' real good care of her, aren't you, Joe?" the man said and turned his shoulder slightly towards another figure just behind him.

A second (and larger), figure stepped forward into the ray of moonlight. He was big and strong, while also frighteningly familiar, and holding a struggling creature in his arms. As soon as Seymour discovered that the figure was wearing a yellow jacket and kicking at her captor with her black buckled shoes, he knew that it was in fact a person, and not just any person, the one person he was looking for.

"Daddy!" Julie yelped in the dark.

"Let her go!" Seymour demanded with sudden desperation.

"Hey, no problem," the man still shaded by the alley wall replied with a tone suspicious yet not malicious. He inhaled, then released another puff of smoke before speaking again. "See, we're just a little scrapped for cash. Hand over your wallet and then we'll give her back to ya."

That sort of reply seemed greatly reasonable. This man hardly seemed like a kidnapper by his voice and persuasion, yet it was obvious that he used this to his advantage.

"G-good, fine, great… done," Seymour said, tossing his wallet into the back of the alley.

The smooth talker stooped to the ground and found the wallet at his feet. He fingered through the bills in a flash, making quiet "tisk-tisks" as he looked at the petty amount that Seymour brought.

"It-it's all I have," Seymour supplemented.

"Come on, Pat," the figure named Joe pleaded. "Let's take the money and get outta' here, this kid's getting all squirmy."

"All right, all right," Pat answered while pulling out the forty-four dollars he found inside. "This isn't as much as I would've expected, but it'll do. Thank you for your cooperation, Mr…" He then looked at Seymour's license and read the name. "Ah, Mr. Seymour Krel- born…" He read the name a few times over in his head, before taking a long pause and ordering his cohort to cease. "Hold the phone, Joe. Things just may have gotten interesting."

Julie's mouth had just escaped Joe's hand when Patrick had given the orders for Joe not to release her. She choked out again, "Daddy!"

"Let her go!" Seymour repeated. "We made a deal. I pulled my part of the bargain, now let her go!"

"Oh, not yet Mr. Krelborn. You haven't repaid me yet," said the small man in the dark. "You're the person who ruined my life! How could you ever make up for that?"

"I-I don't know what you're talkin' about," cried Seymour.

The little man stepped into the light of the moon, now fully visible to Seymour for the first time. He was a broken businessman in a suit and tattered tie. He was short, stocky, and ready to target a potential customer. There was something highly familiar about him too, though Seymour could not put his finger on where he had seen him and remained silent.

"What's the matter?" the businessman asked. "You don't recognize me, Seymour Krelborn? Maybe this will ring a bell…" He cleared his throat then spoke even more genially than before. "Patrick Martin, World Botanical Enterprises."


	10. Interrogations and Avocados

_**Return to Skid Row**_

**Chapter Ten: Interrogations and Avocados**

Seymour stood still, stunned…numb. Patrick Martin was a name that history would not let him forget. On the night of truth when he rescued his wife from Audrey II's jaws of death, there was a final test to his loyalty and character. That was when he met Patrick Martin.

Several sales men had approached Seymour to work for their firms after Audrey II made his life full of riches and potential. Martin seemed like any other at first, but his plan to exploit the botanical sensation would have had far more sinister implications if it had come true. Martin's business wanted to send in representatives to take leaf cuttings of the alien plant to propagate, and then sell them to florists' shops across the nation; unknowing of the plants' horrible quest to devour all mankind.

It was that with the realization that Audrey loved him for simply who he was that made Seymour turn his life around and refuse to continue committing the bloody work he had before. He refused the offer and destroyed the plant once and for all. Since that night, he had not seen or heard of Patrick Martin again, and assumed that he had simply shrunk back into cheating people wherever it was that he worked.

"Oh," Seymour choked, still very surprised and confused by this surprise meeting with a new criminal and his daughter's kidnapper, Patrick Martin.

"_Oh!_ That's all you can say. _Oh_?" Patrick Martin asked near manic laughter at repeating Seymour's words. "Strange that we would meet up again, eh Seymour ol pal?"

"Pat, you know this guy?" Patrick's assistant Joe asked, still hanging onto a struggling Julie.

"Sure do," Patrick replied darkly. "This is the son of a bitch I was telling you about that turned down my offer and ruined my life!"

"Wait a second, how did me turnin' down that offer ruin your life?" Seymour asked.

"Oh, so now you care huh?" Patrick said smugly. "Well, since you asked, I'll tell ya. I was the person to go get cuttings of that goddamned vegetable Audrey Two for the WBE, and you turned down my offer. You turned down a potentially _multi million_ dollar offer! Well, I told ya I'd come back, and when I did the shop was toast. Everybody said that the owner demolished it and nobody knew why. There was no sign of you or that plant anywhere, and the company needed those cuttings.

"It was my last shot or I was fired, so I tried anything, and I mean anything, to find one of those big green moneymakers. Eventually I tried to pass Venus Flytraps with painted polka dots off as the mini Audrey Two, but it failed and I was arrested for false advertizing, so I lost my job. I could never find anything that paid that well again."

Seymour regarded that Patrick's face was flushed with anger and hatred.

"I was forced penniless into the street, livin' in this rat hole part a' town while you and that little blonde girlfriend a' yours decided to go off honeymooning and living out your American dream," Martin concluded. "My life was destroyed, and it's all your fault!"

Seymour looked at Patrick Martin sympathetically. He understood why the salesman was so devastated and angry, but he knew that preventing him from taking those cuttings had quite possibly saved thousands of lives. "Look Patrick, I'm sorry for what happened, I really am. But you don't understand…"

"-Oh I understand!" Patrick cut him off hastily. "I understand that you're a world class fool who doesn't know his ticket to fortune when he sees it. Well, the tables are turned now! Look who's begging who for favors now!"

There was a metallic click sound in the back of the alley where Joe and Julie were. It made Seymour instantly panic, as he recognized the sound from the night of Orin and Mushnik's deaths both. "Y-you couldn't… you wouldn't!"

"No, I wouldn't, if this were a normal case," Martin hissed.

Julie seemed to catch on to the danger she was in and screamed, "Daddy, help!"

Again, Seymour felt slightly queasy along with his anger. "Stop!" he pleaded. "I'll do anything Patrick, name your price. I'll give you my car, a-and it's a good car!" That did not seem to sway Patrick. "Look, I'll give you more money, if that's what you want. I'll give you my house, anything! Just don't hurt her, please."

"You'll give us anything?" Patrick seemed to consider something before speaking again, "All right, there is a way we can work this out. I'll give you back the girl for the way to get an Audrey Two. Sounds like a fair trade to me."

Seymour stared at Patrick, blinking once. "I-I can't," Seymour said almost under his breath. "I don't have one."

"Then where did you find it? Where are those big avocados from?" Patrick demanded as Joe pushed the gun closer to his victim's face in the shadow of the alley.

"I bought it here Downtown. I-I can't tell you exactly where it came from; you wouldn't believe me, but it's very far away. So far that you could never hope or want to find another one. Now please, please, let her go!"

_I'm in trouble, Daddy's scared, something about a plant with Mama's name, and now they're talking about avocados… whatever those are,_ Julie's mind raced. She had tried everything from kicking and screaming to get Joe to put her down, but nothing seemed to work. Then, a rather brilliant defense idea crossed her mind as Joe's hand slipped directly below her mouth.

"I don't think so!" Patrick replied to Seymour's excuse. "You're gonna' help me get one of those plants or else we'll-"

Suddenly Joe shrieked, interrupting the interrogation. Julie had bitten his hand, forcing him to let go of his gun out of surprise and pain. She wiggled slightly out of his grip just before she knew that her attack's power had worn off. Joe clutched the girl tighter and held her up in the air for what seemed like an eternity with blind anger in his blue eyes.

"Stupid kid, you aren't even worth me keepin' you around!" he yelled.

Then he did something terrifying and unexpected: he tossed her aside and her entire left side of her body smacked against the wall of the alley. She whimpered slightly from the pain before she fell limply onto the pavement at his feet.

Time and all its observers stood still at that moment.

Seymour watched with horror as the scene played out. In his mind, that could not have just happened, but it had. After only a second of looking at his daughter's body, his shock and disbelief boiled into a heated and terrible rage. His cheeks burned hot, and his breathing turned into slightly labored heaves. He had only been this angry once before in his life. Just as he had felt watching Orin abuse Audrey on the night that truly sparked his horrid past, he wanted these men dead for what they had done to his daughter, and the revolver just past Patrick's foot was like a glowing beacon in the dark.

"Joe, what the hell was that?" Patrick yelled as he ran up to his violent cohort, failing to notice Seymour moving behind him. "Did you drink more than usual or something?"

"She bit me…" Joe grumbled in reply.

"Well you didn't have to go and do _that_!" Patrick argued. "We weren't really gonna kill her, we-"

The criminals hushed as Seymour snatched the revolver up from the floor and aimed it directly at Joe, his hands and the gun withheld in them shaking from confusion and anger. There was little but fury in his eyes as he glared at the man who had just harmed Julie. Joe's eyes, normally filled with his own rage and blindness, changed to a look of helplessness as he stared up the barrel of the small gun.

"Why'd you do it, huh? What did she ever do to you?" Seymour asked, nearly yelling as hot, salty tear water trickled out of the corner of his eye. "What did _she_ ever do to_ you_?"

"T-take it easy with that thing, buddy!" Patrick pleaded. "We never meant to hurt her; we never wanted to hurt anybody, we just…"

"You didn't mean to hurt her?" Seymour repeated furiously. "Then why did you threaten her? Why did you take her from us in the first place? You hurt her, my wife, and me when you did that! And you say that you didn't want to hurt anyone?"

"Look, just give us a chance to…"

"_Give you a chance_? You didn't give Julie a chance, why should I give you one?" Seymour asked, his finger just a flicker of pressure away from pulling the trigger.

"Please, please don't hurt me!" Joe cried, cowering like a wounded animal. Never before had anyone forced him into submission as Seymour did now with just a flicker of pressure away from ending his life. "You wouldn't do it, would you?"

Seymour glared at the now pathetic Joe and terrified Patrick, his anger transforming him into an unrecognizable monster. It was when he looked into Joe's face that Seymour remembered where he had seen him before. He was the same man who had murdered the person outside of the bar only a night before, and now he possibly had taken another life. The deep, sinister voice of Audrey II inside his mind screeched, _"Say yes and blow em' away!"_ And for the first time in a long while, he wanted to abide by that voice and avenge what Martin and Joe had done, but then something deeper in his soul stopped him.

"No," he answered, slowly lowering his hand before tossing the gun aside. He looked over at his daughter hidden in the dark and let his eyes shift to his toes where they stayed. "I may be worthless, I may have made a horrible deal or two, and I may be an awful dad for not saving my Julie girl, but I'm not a murderer." He hung his head low toward the pavement, releasing with a great breathe all of the anger in his heart.

Patrick regained his calm air and chuckled. "I told ya' Joe, this guy's harmless." He smiled and picked up the gun that Seymour had dropped. "Now, where were we with the quest-_ions_?"

As if on queue, a police car slid into the alley, its siren blaring and the lights shining red and blue. Seymour, Patrick, and Joe all froze, dumbfounded that the officers had found them. The scene before the police car played out much more than what the chief inspector had suspected. Seymour stood at the mouth of the alley with two shady-looking men nearby, the smaller one holding a gun, the larger down on the ground cowering, and the little girl was slumped behind them all.

"Put down your weapon, sir!" an officer called from inside the cab before other police cars began to pile in.

The chief inspector exited the car after their entrance and a muffled female voice said on his radio, _"What's goin' on?"_

"Don't worry, ma'am. We'll take care of it," he replied into the receiver with a worried tone before he walked closer and repeated, "Put down the weapon, Martin. You and your friend there are under arrest."

*** * ***


	11. Somewhere

**_Return to Skid Row_**

**Chapter Eleven: Somewhere**

*** * * **

The events following Patrick and Joe's arrest were fuzzy at best for Seymour to recall. The world seemed to be a blur of sights, sounds, and feelings all rushing through him at once. Martin and Joe came rather quietly, though Patrick insisted his innocence, shouting out, "I'm innocent! I'm innocent!" a few times. It bewildered the officers that Skid Row's top thief and the most dangerous drunk were cohorts, let alone were out kidnapping together, but that did not seem to matter then. They surrounded Seymour without warning, asking him various questions. Was he all right? Did they take anything? What happened to the girl?

That's when Seymour remembered Julie.

He barged through the circle of police. Ignoring their persistent advice, he picked up his daughter into his arms and flipped her onto her back so that he could see her face, cradling her on his lap as he would to an infant. She showed no sign of life, except for a small gasp that escaped her lips before all fell silent, even the voices of the officers faded.

"Julie?" Seymour asked his daughter very softly, shaking her body lightly on his knee in an attempt to stir her. "Julie girl, wake up now, it's me… Daddy."

Julie did not respond to her father's pleas. In fact, she seemed to be numb to the world at this point.

Seymour continued to say her name, but more desperately than he had begged before. "Julie, please wake up..."

Seymour's voice began to fade and his body shook in disbelief and crushing realization. The smell of salty teardrops invaded his nostrils and destroyed any other senses. The body in his arms seemed cool to the touch. It chilled his hands and mind both..

Only one voice could have broken the heinous quiet, and that was the one voice that Seymour did hear above all others.

"Excuse me, 'scuse me, scuse me," Audrey said as she came out of one police car and onto the scene. "Please, please let me through!" she declared before she pushed into the circle of officers and dropped her jaw in shock. "My baby…"

Seymour wanted to respond, but could not find the words to do so. This was too much for him to handle. At last, he gave in and cried, his shoulders shaking in fear and grief that they might be losing Julie. The cop car siren blared once more, and an officer nudged Seymour's shoulder, but he did not hear as he followed them into their noisy cab with his wife crying behind him. All that he heard was his inner prayer asking for only one thing. _Don't leave us, Julie…_

That was all before the police rushed Julie to the paramedics for emergency treatment with Seymour holding her all the way. That was before the doctors came and took her away into their rooms, separating the family yet again. A hospital room never seemed so menacing and horrifyingly patient as it did to the Krelborn pair on that night. The injury Julie had sustained was not fatal, but due to her anxiety and asthma, she was not in the best shape to start. Seymour had seen her head hit the wall of the alley and knew that would knock the girl out cold if not cause something worse.

Audrey simply sat hunched far over in her chair, holding her face in her hands despite the fact that she was lacking tears to hide from crying so much before. Seymour was not in any better shape, staring off at the door without blinking more than twice. His shock was wearing off, but he could not let it go completely free. If he did, his heart would break just as Audrey's heart had. It was unbearable to think of Julie leaving their lives when they had been so close to having her back.

From the day that Julie was born, Seymour found himself captivated by the spell she seemed to cast. There was something special about her, something magic perhaps, in the bond that they shared as father and daughter.

* * *

_It was a cool October evening, four years before the present time. The sunset reflected through the windows of the Krelborn house on Sunshine Street so that it seemed the whole interior of the home was glowing. Because of the new arrival in the family, it felt that way too. _

_Audrey sat on the master bed as she bottle-fed the tiny baby in her arms. She was watching the little one slowly begin to drift to sleep, basking in maternal instinct and energy. Seymour, who had just come home from work, smiled before sitting beside Audrey. He put his forehead to his wife's gently and looked down at the baby girl in her lap. _

_Julie was so small then, yet so amazing. Her hair was a patch of brown on her soft head, like his but different too. Her face reminded him of his own, rounded and innocent, but it had a feminine beauty to it like her mother. She also had a small button of a nose (he wasn't sure where that came from). The features that truly astounded him, however, were her eyes. They shimmered like the reflection of two green marbles when held up to the sun. Never had he seen someone quite like her._

"_Hiya' Julie girl," he said, waving mostly his fingers at the baby._

"_Julie girl?" Audrey asked. "Why not just call her Julie?"_

"_-Because she is my Julie girl," Seymour answered simply. _

_Audrey chuckled and pecked her husband's cheek. "She's __**our**__ Julie girl," she corrected, and then continued to croon her lovely song. _

_Seymour sat beside her for a long time afterward, listening to his wife's song. At last, the power of sleep overtook him and he drifted away into slumber, but a strange thing happened. He continued to hear Audrey's lullaby in his dreams, no matter how much he might have tried to ignore it. It was a tune that she often sang to herself around the house in those days. It must have been a song that a person sings from the heart, as he had never heard of it. He never asked her what the words were, but he always caught the lyrics at the end that went exactly: _

_**"Somewhere that's green…"**_

_Time passed quickly, and Julie's baby days faded into the past. Seymour had been there for many of her major milestones, including when she first started making small steps around the house. He remembered some of her first words too, and how excited Audrey would be at each new one. They were small words like "no" and "mama", but words nonetheless. Interacting with Julie became easier because she could talk, though controlling her burning curiosity seemed to become more difficult as she grew older._

_Seymour took Julie out to the park one Sunday when she was about only two and a half years old. The young girl occupied her time by watching some older boys climbing one of the oak trees, and became inspired to do the same. __ She clambered up the nearest tree that she could find__. Seymour could have sworn that he had only turned away from her for half of a second, but when he turned around his heart skipped a beat. Somehow Julie had managed to climb onto the low branch of a nearby oak tree, and was flailing dangerously from one side to the next as if she were about to fall._

"_Hang on, Julie, I gotcha'! I gotcha'!" Seymour called, and ran beneath the branch with his arms extended. Within a few seconds after his arrival there, Julie fell into his arms and he fell to the ground from the weight. After regaining his footing, Seymour reprimanded her. "Julie girl, what were ya' thinkin'? You could have really hurt yourself!"_

_Julie looked down ashamedly before answering as best as she could, "I'm sowy, Daddy."_

_He sighed. "It's okay, just… think things over next time, okay?" She nodded and looked up at him hopefully. "Let's just go home. I won't tell your ma about this." They walked home together after that, trusting each other to keep their word. _

_That was one of those times when Seymour had to be the parent for the little girl of his who always seemed to be prone to trouble. It wasn't to say that he always had to control Julie. In fact, he liked playing with her and seeing her happy. He rarely had time for games when he was a kid, except for a pathetic invention of his called "kick the can down the street". Julie was far more creative in her environment, always finding something to do. That made his childhood seem less lost than he had once thought. Youth had escaped him once, but he could almost find it again with Julie._

_Music was an important aspect of Krelborn family time. At some point of the day, one of them would break into a song. The radio was an essential, as it provided them with the sweet tunes that they loved so much. __Seymour came home one day not too long before the present time to the sounds of the radio playing loudly in the living room. His daughter was there, singing and dancing along to the song "Rocking Robin". When he made his presence known with a small chuckle, she stopped her fun suddenly. _

"_Why did you stop?" he asked of her reaction._

_Julie chewed her lower lip, and then said quietly, "You're watching."_

_Seymour smiled. "You don't have to impress me, Julie girl. Music's just for fun." He demonstrated his shimmy tap dancing, and Julie fell to the floor in laughter at her father's clumsiness. Taking advantage of her moment of weakness, Seymour grabbed his daughter and tickled her until she pleaded for him to let go between gasps. "I won't stop until you try to have some fun!" he insisted._

"_-Okay, okay!" Julie answered, and felt relieved when she was released from the tickle hold. She kept her promise by twirling around a few times rather like a ballerina dancer. After she got comfortable with her movement, she began to sing the backup of, "tweet, tweet". It was then that her father took her hands and spin her around in a circle, much to her apparent delight. "-C'mon Daddy, do that again!" she begged when he stopped. "Pleeeaase?"_

"_What's going on in here?" Audrey asked as she walked into the room from the kitchen where she had been making dinner. "-Oh, a dance?" She giggled. "-Mind if I join in?"_

"_-Not at all," Seymour replied kindly. _

_His wife's voice was so fair that Seymour found himself caught up with it and tried to harmonize. Seymour and Audrey would trade off the high part for the low part as they sang together, and it rarely surprised either of them when they did so. Their voices matched perfectly. __Julie provided the backup that was needed, continually singing the "tweet, tweets". Even Rover barked along. And for several songs afterward, the family continued their little party. By the time Audrey remembered the roast in the oven, it had burned to a blackened crisp. It was no trouble though, as the family went out to eat at Denny's like they always did when their meals were overcooked. _

_After that long and fun day, Julie fell asleep almost instantly on the car ride home. Seymour and Audrey both shared their nightly ritual of tucking the girl into bed and making sure that she was all right. _

"_Goodnight, Julie," Audrey whispered without waking the girl before leaving her bedroom. _

_Seymour continued to watch over Julie until he felt tired that night. Before heading to bed, he walked to her side and gently stroked back her hair, then grinned. It was moments like that when Seymour could not feel happier that Julie was in the world._

_* * * _

Seymour had never really taken time to reflect on how much his life was affected by having Julie until that point. Through all of this mess, Julie was one of the only people that could make him smile. He understood that the forces of his own guilt and regret were what drove him into this great depressive state, but now his mind could not think about himself, only about her. He may have never caused the child physical harm, but she must have seen how he had changed from a loving parent to a cold one, and that was painful itself. His whole world would be lost, hollow, and broken if Julie was not a part of his life.

With a great crease of his brow, Seymour bent over and made a silent prayer. _I promise, if she comes out of this okay I'll never let her forget that I'm here. No more moping around over nightmares and sadness. I'll do it for her._ He looked over at Audrey, still sad and praying for the same thing that he was_. Please, please don't let us lose her. We need our Julie girl._

In that moment of his thoughts, a doctor entered the waiting room quietly. He saw the couple sitting silently in their chairs and tiptoed beside them. "Mr. and Mrs. Krelborn?" he asked kindly.

Upon hearing their names, the pair immediately stood up. "Yes?" Audrey chirped.

"We've finished with the exam and work on your daughter Julie."

"-_Work_?" Seymour asked worriedly.

"Yes. Julie had a minor concussion and broke her left arm," the doctor answered gravely with a slight cough.

"Is she gonna' be okay, d-docta' Goodmun?" Audrey asked with her lip quivering slightly as she barely read his nametag.

Dr. Goodmun smiled. "Yes, Mrs. Krelborn, she'll be fine. Julie was only unconscious, but she's coming around fast. In fact, you can come in to visit her if you'd like."

"Oh, yes! Yes, that'd be wonda'ful! Wouldn't it, Seymour?" Audrey exclaimed, smiling with immense relief at her husband.

Seymour smiled back at her with the same emotion and possibly more.

The kind doctor led them down the hall. The walk seemed to go on for so irritatingly long that neither of the parents could stand it. At last, they reached a white door like all of the others, and Dr. Goodmun stepped aside for the pair to enter.

"When your done visiting you can stay in the waiting room. Just let a nurse know," he said and then turned back down the hall again as the couple entered the room.

The walls of this hospital room were a color similar to clam chowder, and a marble grey counter sat in the corner. Hospital beds white as snow rested beneath the soupy ceiling of the room. Underneath the covers of the first bed rested a small form that was Julie with her stuffed rabbit Bunny tucked under her right arm. Her eyes were closed lightly, and her breathing was somewhat labored, but other than that she appeared to be napping normally. The only thing that made the image unappealing was the cast on her arm.

"Julie?" Audrey asked softly, hoping that her daughter would answer as she walked to her bedside.

For a moment, nobody moved at all in the room. Then without warning, Julie's eyes fluttered open and she moved out from under the covers. "M-Mama?" The four-year-old said groggily. Her eyes darted from both of her parents' faces before she smiled back at her mother.

"Julie…" Audrey whispered as she gently put her arms around the girl. "Aw Julie, you're okay." She cried a grateful tear; probably the last tear she had left. "I was so worried about you, sweetheart."

"Oh, Mama..." Julie said. Once Audrey let go of her, Julie looked up at her father, still standing by the door. "Daddy?" She asked.

Seymour tried to smile as he came to his wife's side and looked into their daughter's wonderful green eyes that he remembered from even her baby days. "Hey Julie girl. You okay?"

"Uh huh, but my arm hurts," Julie replied.

"Oh, I'm-I'm so sorry," he replied, quietly tortured by the pain she was enduring. "You scared me to death back there, Julie," he admitted very softly. "I thought I might've lost you."

Julie blinked, not understanding completely. "I'm here, Daddy."

Audrey grinned at her daughter's response and kissed her cheek. "-And that's all we could ask for." Then she took a breath and sighed. "You should be gettin' back to sleep now, sweetie. Mama and Daddy have to go."

"No, don't leave yet, Mama," Julie cried before adding, "I can't sleep, Mama. I need to hear a story."

Audrey sighed. _Julie's back all right, _she thought. "I'm all out a' stories, honey. How about you ask your fatha'? I need to get some sleep."

"Me?" Seymour asked as his wife went out to the hall and back to the waiting room. He would have to tell the story now, though which kind to tell was the question. A thought struck him then, and he began to think on how to tell Julie. "Well, you remember that story Ma told you about how we met?" Julie nodded in response and he continued. "Well, there's more to that one, but it's kind of a scary story."

"It's okay, I'm not scared," Julie replied, instantly intrigued. "What's the story about, Daddy?"

"Oh, it's about lots of things. It's about a flower shop, a grumpy old boss, a crazy dentist, a beautiful girl, but mostly it's about a man and… _a monster_." He took a pause, then went on, "Now, this man wasn't your knight in shining armor, he was just a normal kind a' guy. And the monster wasn't something you'd think of everyday like Frankenstein, it was a plant."

"A _plant?"_ Julie asked.

"-Yup, a little plant that the man named Audrey Two after the one woman he ever loved…"

The story continued on and on, longer than any story Julie could remember being told. She had never heard such an unusual story before, and it was very scary, but her father told it in a way that made her feel safe. The plot twisted over and over. The beautiful girl was a drill-happy dentist's girlfriend, the flower shop that her parents worked at was a horrible place of poverty and depression, two characters disappeared, a love story between the hero and the girl unfolded, and behind the whole thing was a giant talking plant! She might not have believed the wild tale if her father had not been so brilliant at story telling. It was as if he had been there while it had all happened.

At last Seymour concluded his story. "-But on the brink of life and death, the man defeated Audrey Two by blowing it up with an electrical wire. He and the girl were back together, and no plants could ever come between them again. The end."

"Did all a' that really happen?" Julie asked almost instantly, "Was Audrey Two really from outer space?"

"Yes, it's all true." Seymour replied. "Now go to sleep, Julie."

Julie half-shut her eyes, but blurted suddenly, "-And it really ate the dentist and the old man with the funny name?"

"Yes, it did," he answered. "Now really, you've got to go to sleep."

Seymour was just about to turn off the light when Julie interrupted him again, "Daddy, were Mama and you the girl and the man?"

Seymour froze. He never said his or Audrey's name name, nor did he think that any of it would be obvious to Julie. He was confused about whether to tell that part of the truth or not.

"Yes," he finally said, feeling horribly low all of the sudden. He could not make himself look at his daughter's face. "That's how me and your ma really got together, you could say. I've done some bad- no, _horrible_ things, Julie girl. And I've had to live with them for a long time. I know that they were bad, and I hate myself for ever being stupid enough to do them, but you don't hate me, do ya?"

Julie stared at her father's face, and then answered, "I don't hate you, you're my Daddy."

With that sentence, Seymour lifted his head up and smiled. He felt a strange sort of pressure being released, like the immense feeling of ice melting away off his heart. He returned the favor that Julie had given him the night before and hugged her warmly. The father and daughter stayed in that embrace for what could have been an eternity. As he held his daughter in his arms again, Seymour knew that he would keep his promise.


	12. Dancing in the Light

_Author's Note: Well, here's the end of the tale. I'd like to thank anyone who has read this and especially those of you that reviewed it. It makes me feel so much better to get feedback. If you liked this story, then check out all of the fabulous Little Shop of Horrors stories there are on this site. You'll be amazed at what you might find._ _Also, the sequel to this story is up now and that means more continuing adventures for the Krelborns!_

_*S. Snowflake_

* * *

_**Return to Skid Row**_

**Chapter Twelve: Dancing in the Light**

* * *

The sunrise came like a silent answer to a prayer. Seymour awoke from his sleeping stupor, fixed his glasses, and looked over at his wife with her head resting on his shoulder. _Thank God that I've got both of you here with me, _he thought. He tried to rest, but found sleeping impossible. He carefully nudged Audrey's shoulder, and whispered faintly, "Audrey?"

Audrey stretched her arm slowly as she woke up. "Yes, Seymour?" she asked without opening her eyes.

Seymour noticed her tired disposition and frowned. "Sorry to wake you up, but I needed to talk to you."

"That's alright," Audrey replied, opening up her eyes. "I was only pretendin' to sleep, really." She smiled before shutting her green diamond eyes tightly again. "If only I'd watched her betta', she would a' neva' got into trouble. I'm no betta' than Mama was to me."

"Audrey, that's not true," Seymour said, putting his arm around her back. "It's nobody's fault for what happened, especially not yours. And don't talk like that. I never met your mother, but from what you say, you're nothing like her. If you hadn't got the police to follow me, it might've been too late. You saved her, Audrey."

"_Me_?" Audrey asked, lifting her head up. "Seymour, if anyone saved Julie, it was _you_. I can't even think about what might've happened if you hadn't got there."

"I still can't believe that Patrick Martin was the one behind it. Who'd a' thought he would come back to haunt us because I turned down his offer?" Seymour asked.

"Well, you had to do it, honey. Just imagine thousands of Audrey Twos; eating people, taking ova' the world… bigga' than hula hoops!" She shuddered briefly, and Seymour took her hand in his for comfort. She took a deep breath and exhaled. "At least we've got our Julie girl back." She kissed Seymour's nose, then snuggled up closer as best as she could in the stiff hospital chair. "Isn't that right, Seymour?"

"Yeah," Seymour answered, ready to go back to sleep. But then something began to bother him. "Hey, Audrey?"

"Yes, Seymour?"

"Before we leave, could we go back to Skid Row one last time? There's something I feel like I never set straight with Orin and Mister… I mean, _dad_," he said, and looked into Audrey's lovely eyes. "-And besides, there's one thing we still have to visit before we go back to Greenville."

Audrey paused faintly. "Sure we can go back. If that's what you want," she said with surprise in her voice, and shut her eyes again.

"-And Audrey?"

"Yes, Seymour?"

"There was a song I used to hear you sing. Could you sing that song? Just a little bit? You know, the green one?"

Audrey opened her eyes, blinked, and then concentrated. "Gee, it's been so long since I sang that one. Let me think… ah, yes:

"…_A picture out a' Betta' Homes_

_And Gardens Magazine…_

_Far from Skid Row,_

_I knew we'd go_

_Somewhere that's green…"_

Once she finished in her soft and dreamy voice, Seymour smiled and let the words revolve in his mind. _Beautiful…_

* * *

Julie was awake soon after her parents dozed off, and the doctors re-awoke them. Once she was released from the hospital and walking around, she shrouded them with questions about the story her father had told her. 'How big was Audrey Two' she would ask, along with 'What color were Audrey Two's teeth?' Audrey and Seymour did not mind it. It was a good sign that Julie would be okay after all that she had been through, and nobody would understand her imaginative bantering anyway.

Audrey asked Julie if it would be all right to go back to Skid Row just one more time, and the child agreed with barely any persuasion. As soon as the family reclaimed their luggage at their hotel, they piled into their blue bug and drove downtown, buying two funeral arrangements at a flower shop on the way. A strange sort of rush followed their entry back to the dark world of the slums. Perhaps it was the ravaged buildings' stark contrast to their home that was so oddly attractive, or perhaps Audrey and Seymour still needed to recapture their independent pasts. Most likely, however, they were returning to this place of so much oppression and sadness because they knew of Skid Row's unmistakable power, and how they could never ever really be free of it. For once in both Audrey and Seymour's lives, Skid Row did not seem like such a bad place, but a part of their lives. The car pulled up to the vacant lot with rhythmic putters sounding its arrival. Seymour took a deep breath, and then opened the driver door.

"You don't have to come with me, Audrey," he said.

She smiled. "-But I want to be with you. That's what I'm here for. Julie, will you be okay?"

"I'm comin' too, Mama," Julie answered, and pulled out her stuffed rabbit with her to hold tight to her face before opening the door carefully.

Slowly, the trio walked into the vacant lot that was all that remained of Mushnik's Skid Row Florists. Just as before, none of them said a word. Just as he had done before, Seymour walked ahead of his family, looking down to the ground. With a small tremble, he moved to the ground near the farthest wall, placed the arrangements side by side, and shut his eyes. He appeared to be almost trance-like, thinking deeply about something. Audrey knew what he was doing. She had seen him do this a few times. He was praying for Orin and Mr. Mushnik.

_I just want to say I'm sorry. I know that's hardly a way to make up for all the things I've done, but I am sorry. Orin, please know that I only did it to help her, and I wouldn't have just stood there like an idiot if I was not so afraid and stupid. If it weren't for you, I'd have never realized how gullible I am… and never to try nitrous oxide. And Mr. Mushnik, I never meant for that monster to eat you, I didn't know what to do. I'll never forget all that you did for me. I was lucky to have you, and took you for granted… Someday I'll open my own flower shop, and I'll call it Mushnik & Son's in honor of you, Pop. I promise._

Seymour almost smiled between these thoughts. _ I've been changed because of you both. If it weren't for your lives, I wouldn't be myself. I would have none of the things that really matter. Money and temptation was what the plant offered, and I gave in, but I had all that I really needed all along._

Just that moment, something soft touched Seymour's shoulder. It was Julie, patting his shoulder gently with her hand. Seymour turned around and smiled at his daughter before he hugged her lightly at his side. "Thanks, Julie girl."

"-Looked like you needed a hug, Daddy."

Audrey grinned, knowing that the bond between her husband and daughter was fully restored, and almost joined in a group hug, but a voice calling her name interrupted her.

"Audrey! Seymour!" the voice said.

Audrey glanced down the street and spotted Crystal, Chiffon, and Ronnette running toward them at lightning speed. "What d'ya know, it's the girls!" she said as Seymour stood up and took Julie's hand in his.

Crystal, Chiffon, and Ronnette were running at lighting speed toward them from across the street. "There you are, Audrey!" Chiffon cried out again, running up to the Krelborn family with her friends behind her. "Look girls, there they are, and Julie too!"

"We all heard about what happened," Ronnette said.

"-And we all wanna' make em' pay for what they did!" Crystal shouted.

"Yeah, you said it!" Chiffon added. "You let us at those creeps and we'll teach em' a lesson!"

"Calm down you two, we'll talk first, _then_ kill the creeps." Ronnette said, then looked to Julie sympathetically. "-You okay, Julie honey?"

"Uh-huh. I'm fine, I just got this cast," Julie replied.

Ronnette laughed in her throat. "Well listen, if you ever get into trouble in our neighborhood again, you call your aunties Ronnette, Crystal, and Chiffon to protect you."

"Oh, okay," Julie said with glee. She didn't know that these were her aunts until now. "-Thanks, Auntie Ronnette!"

The girls giggled, then looked back up at Julie's parents solemnly. "So you three are going back home then?" Chiffon asked.

"Yeah," Audrey replied, slightly sad.

Crystal looked uncertain. "Hey listen, we know this vacation hasn't been all that good for you, but everyone wants to know if you'll all be coming back down to the city soon."

Audrey looked to Seymour, who looked back at her, and there was a mutual understanding. "Of course we will," Audrey said. "This place is, well, part of us. Tryin' to forget it was a mistake, a big one. We'll be back again. Oh, and of course you're all invited to stop by our little house if you're ever in Greenville," she added cheerily.

"Sure thing, that house a' yours sounds like a little slice of heaven," Ronnette said.

"Yeah, and I wanna' see how you all are doing before you two decide to pop out another surprise kid on us," Chiffon said with a laugh.

Audrey and Seymour looked at each other with a nervous yet almost delightful chuckle at the thought of having another child.

"Well, see ya around, girls," Seymour said shyly to change the subject.

The girls all responded by giving the rather geeky fellow a big hug. "Goodbye Seymour," Chiffon said.

They then hugged Julie without hurting her arm. "Bye-bye, honey," Ronnette said to the girl with love in her voice.

Seymour smiled and led his daughter away from the group and down the street a little a ways, where he felt that he could let Audrey say anything else to the girls without his interference, not to mention simply because he was horrible at saying big goodbyes.

"We're really gonna' miss you, Audrey," Crystal said to their friend.

"Aw, I'll miss you too," Audrey answered and gave her friend a hug. Chiffon and Ronnette joined in to make it a group friend hug, and all four of them hummed in a faint and giddy sort of closure. After a short pause, Chiffon sighed and broke from the circle.

"Well, we've gotta be going off to work. See ya' Audrey," she said, and started walking away.

"-Bye Audrey, take care a' yourself," Crystal said before following Chiffon in a line.

Ronnette was the only one of the girls to stay a bit longer. "-Bye Audrey. Good luck."

"With what?" Audrey asked as her friend followed the other two girls.

"With everything," Ronnette replied, looking behind her. "Make sure Julie stays out a' trouble. And remember to love up that Seymour real good! Trust me, he'll be back to normal in no time."

Audrey watched as Ronnette rejoined her friends and they formed their usual trio. With a quick wave and a sharp turn, they rounded the corner and walked out of sight, as if they magically reappeared and disappeared wherever and whenever they pleased.

"Well, ya neva' know," Audrey thought aloud with a shrug. She returned to her husband and daughter just down the block, and could not help but smile at what she saw.

There was Seymour, holding Julie in his arms and spinning her around in a circle. "Look out, Julie girl!" he said. "Whoosh! We're going through space _and _time!"

Julie laughed all throughout "The Rocket Ship Game", as Seymour had once called it. Audrey was glad to see it again, as she thought that Seymour's depression might have driven it to extinction.

Julie took notice of her mother then, and said rather dizzily, "Hi, Mama."

Audrey came to her little family with her heels quietly clicking at the pavement. "Now young lady, you know what Docta' Goodmun said about rough housing on that arm," she reprimanded lightly.

"Oh, Mom…" Julie grumbled.

Audrey and Seymour both laughed. "Don't worry, we'll let you off easy this time. And besides, I know your fatha' had something to do with that rocket ship idea," Audrey said, looking over at her naturally guilty husband. "-Now honey, didn't you say there was something else we had to see before going home?"

Seymour's face seemed to light up at her question. "Yeah… yeah, there is! But wait, you have to close your eyes first."

Audrey stared back blankly, and he explained, "It's a surprise."

"Oh, okay," Audrey replied uncertainly as she closed her eyes and let her husband lead the way to this mystery place with a weak smile.

Seymour walked Audrey along carefully down the rugged sidewalks and around a few buildings, holding her hand tightly. Audrey was slightly afraid since her husband had the coordination of a noodle and slightly deficient eyesight, but she trusted him no matter what, and did not peek. He seemed so happy by doing this that she could not do him any wrong.

"Careful Audrey, there's some stairs here," he said while he paused and guided her down several brick steps.

One by one they went down until she felt level ground again underneath her feet. He took a little break and addressed their daughter.

"Julie, I want you to stay right here. Do you understand?"

"Okie-dokie, Daddy," Julie replied cutely. Audrey wished she could have seen the sweet look on her daughter's face when she said that.

"Almost there," Seymour told his wife and led her up another staircase. Her shoes scuffed the stairs as she arose. It made Audrey very nervous without being able to see where she was going. Seymour seemed to detect her distress, and whispered, "Don't worry, if you fall down, I'll catch ya'."

That didn't make her feel any better as they ascended the stairway and she gripped his hand tighter. At last they came to a stop, and Seymour did not speak.

"Can I open em' now?" Audrey asked softly.

Seymour smiled. "Yes."

Audrey's eyes fluttered open and she took in her surroundings in the bat of an eyelash. She barely had to look at the ravaged remains of a demolished building below her, the staircase that she was standing on, or the little flowers and weeds poking out of the cracks to remember the day that she first came to this place. It was the day that Orin disappeared and everything would change in she and Seymour's lives. In that exact spot upon that same fire escape five years before, she and Seymour had admitted their true feelings for each other and started their relationship.

"I rememba' this place," Audrey whispered, looking around at the remarkably unchanged area with wide, wandering eyes.

"You do?"

"Of course I do," she replied and turned to face her husband. "This is where we got togetha'. How could I forget that?"

"Well then, do you remember this?" Seymour asked, and slowly wrapped his arms around her back to pull her closer to his face so that their noses were mere centimeters from touching. "-Cause I do." Then he leaned forward and their lips met for a short, but warm, kiss.

Once her husband stopped kissing her, Audrey giggled and spoke to him again, "Yeah, but I think it was a little different…"

They both closed their eyes and embraced, rather than one kissing the other. Their lips met and came apart lightly a few times, but never did they open their eyes or think of anything but just the moment that they were in. The kiss was passionate, just how both of them remembered it from five years before. Just as it had before, the world went away.

"At least they're back, Bunny," Julie said as she watched her parents from the final stair below. She turned away when she felt that she had seen enough. "Grownups…" she muttered.

Audrey and Seymour separated from their embrace and chuckled at their little girl's response, knowing that she was one of the greatest gifts that they could ever hope for. Then they looked back into each other's eyes with a grateful smile. Audrey saw that gentle kindness that she knew and loved in Seymour's pools of blue-grey, and found once again the Seymour she loved deep inside.

When Seymour looked back into her earth green eyes, he thought of something. _I bet I could take off these glasses and be all right. I can see more clearly than ever before today._

The light changed above the usually dreary Skid Row. For once, the sky the clouds parted. The strangest thing was that for eachmember of the little family, the light meant something slightly different.

For the mother in the tacky purple dress, the light was the happiness filling her heart that she was sharing with her husband and daughter.

For the little girl with the yellow poodle skirt, the light was her father's love; warm, safe, and everlasting.

And for the father with the big black glasses, the light was the sign of a new start for him to make his whole world brighter. At last he saw the two angels who brought the only light to his life. He knew that he would never forget he had them around again.

**The End.**


End file.
